DOCUMENTATY; RESEARCH INTO TEENS

Our idea for our documentary commission 'Digital Detox' is exploring the way in which teens use social media and how dependent they have become on it. In order to have a clear view of the subject i am researching into social networking sites itself and the usage of it within teens. 

History of Social Networking Sites

The first official social networking site was launched in 1997, called 'First Degrees'. It was extremely popular at one point, having around a million members at its peak, it was bought for £125 million in 2000, demonstrating and in a way foreshadowing the amount of these sites were about to be created in our modern society. However for this site it wasn't meant to be as it was closed down in 2001. The point of this site however, was instant messaging between friends, bringing an online community closer together. After this became a stream of sites that all in essence had this very same purpose, sites such as MySpace, Bebo and most arguably the most famous Facebook. 

Social Networking in Teens

Using the following site as my reference - http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/ - many statistics can be found about firstly how many of teens use these sites and secondly how often they use them. Due to the increase of widespread use of smartphones, teens have a larger access to social media than every before. Found in the Pew Internet Research, only 2% of teens admitted to not going online that often, thus demonstrating the amount that do. Within teens Facebook is the most popular social networking site, however 71% of teens are still using more than one site such as instagram. These sites have in more recent times developed into more than just instant messaging services, Snapchat allows users to send pictures that disappear after up to 10 seconds, Instagram works like everyones public photo album and twitter allows for opinions and debates through 'tweets'. The widespread use and purposes that we have now through these sites means that teens are using these as part of everyday life, instead of real social interaction. 

The statistics above demonstrate the intensity of which teens have become highly dependent on these sites, within our documentary commission our 2 aims would be too 

1) Explore just how far teens are dependent on these sites by examining its effects

2) Put it to the test by taking someones social media away from them

This topic is so relevant for todays teens because the sites are being used more than ever and its also being recognised more than ever. For example as part of Red Nose Day 2017, some  of YouTubes most famous starts took part in 'RedOut' a 24 hour period by which they weren't allowed on their social media. Moreover a local school in Maidstone also took part in a technology ban to equally demonstrate how dependent we are on it. (We hope to speak to someone from this school as part of our doc and talk to them about their experiences)