The overall objective of the proposed chapter is to increase the reader's understanding of the role that social media plays in self-disclosing information about ourselves in the development of friendships and identity, as well as explore these themes in a clinical context. As such, readers will gain knowledge regarding the relations between self-disclosing on social media sites and the ensuing friendship and identity development that occurs, the extension of the research findings to clinical populations, and the questions that still remain unanswered. This information may be useful for the advancement of research, policy development, mental health programs, parenting, and education.
TopSocial media is a term that can be extended to any form of technology that aids in our communication with others. This includes text messaging, instant (or direct) messaging, online gaming, social networking sites, video sharing sites, and e-mail. All of these have one major theme in common: They are intended to be social environments that allow for quick and easy connections to be made among existing and new friends (Smith & Anderson, 2018). While there are a number of different types of social media, social networking sites, video sharing sites, gaming and direct messaging will be the focus of the current chapter.
Social media has become ubiquitous with daily life. Internationally, billions of people log onto social media sites every single day (Stats, 2018). In fact, the Pew Research Centre estimates that roughly 70% of the American public uses some form of social media, with the majority of logins occurring daily (Factsheet, 2018). According to Smith and Anderson (2018), the most popular social media sites include the video sharing site YouTube (73% of American adults), and social networking sites such as Facebook (68% of American adults), Instagram (35% of American adults), or SnapChat (27% of American Adults). On average, social media users are comprised of young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 years, with female users being slightly more common than male users (Factsheet, 2018; Greenwood et al., 2016). It should also be noted that there is a growing number of adolescent social media users, roughly 85% of American adolescents (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Adolescents generally follow the same social media use patterns as young adults, where the video sharing site YouTube (85% of American adolescents) was among the most popular, followed by the social networking sites Instagram (72%), SnapChat (69%), and Facebook (51%).