A new review of the research on digital media use among twenty-somethings finds generally good news for the role of technology in young people’s lives–or at least not the dire consequences that many have predicted. In “Emerging in a Digital World: A Decade Review of Media Use, Effects, and Gratifications in Emerging Adulthood,” Sarah Coyne and her colleagues examine the role of media in identity-shaping, social skills, school performance, and much more, among those aged 18-28. 

Talk to nearly anyone over age 50 and they’ll kvetch about the lack of social skills among young adults today–most famously Sherry Turkle in “The Flight from Conversation,” and her book, Alone Together. “They don’t know how to talk face to face,” or “They’re unable to relate to real people.” Well, that turns out not to be the case. As the authors find, studies show that:

“Although the effects of media on relationships varies as a function of medium, it appears that for most emerging adults, use of SNSs compliments or facilitates real-world relationships, rather than replacing or harming them.” In fact, “For each hour increase on average in social network [Facebook] exposure or cell phone communication, average face-to-face social interaction increased about 10–15 min.”

But are those relationships deep? Signs suggest they are, eventually. Greater intimacy emerges with layers of media use. Facebook may be a shallow introduction to people, but it does launch a connection that can be picked up and furthered with texting or ichats/google hangouts. Skype brings people face to face virtually, and eventually, people do meet up in person. Really. Here’s a nice review of the latest back-and-forth on this issue.

Another area of worry is violence, particularly as the tragic mass shootings perpetrated by young men in their 20s. Many claim that violent video games are a spark that sets off or nurtures violent tendencies among young men. While the authors find ample support in the research for short-term jolts of aggression and antisocial behavior among twenty-somethings (in this case college students) after exposure to media violence, the real problem arises in early childhood. More important to violent behaviors than watching hours of first-person shooter video games as a 20-year-old is a steady diet of violent media in childhood. As the authors write:

Yet, exposure to media violence as a child (and the corresponding childhood aggression) is a far better predictor of aggression in adulthood than exposure to media violence as an adult,  and so it is possible that much of the direct damage may have already been done by the time a child reaches emerging adulthood.

On the other side of the coin, media with positive messages–whether lyrics to a song or a YouTube video with a helping message, also shapes behavior–in a good way.

One of the biggest tasks in teen and young adult years is figuring out who you are. Today, young adults are forging their identity with the help of Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and YouTube. They are preening and pruning what they post and the “me” they present to the world in their creations.  But how much of that online identity is “real” is open for debate. It is commonly known that the “face” people present on Facebook is scrubbed clean–presenting our most hilarious, witty, and popular selves. It is interesting nonetheless to watch teens and young adults grapple with this “second self,” one cloaked behind a veneer of truth perhaps but still a pathway to identity formation.

Another aspect to online identity formation is sometimes overlooked: the freedom to escape any real-world restrictions. Take, for example, this story about kids in India from different castes and youth in American prisons. Technology allowed them to move beyond their imposed identities as lesser individuals and be free to express who they see themselves as becoming. As the story notes, ”

Just as the children in India were able to operate outside their caste in their virtual world, the incarcerated youth organized themselves according to their skills and talents and focused on the goal of becoming more engaged citizens.

“In the virtual world, they were not kids in jail,” Panganiban says.

Still another aspect often glossed over in this new digital era is the shift from passive consumer to active creator. The digital tools at young people’s fingertips are tools that allow easy access to sharing, writing, remixing, and yes, acting. One white paper finds that those who were active online in social causes were more likely to take that energy offline and join up or volunteer, if shown how to get involved. Researchers have coined a new phrase for this digital-mediated, self-interest-driven form of action: participatory politics. This more active role as media creators likely shifts the balance, and effect, in the media relationship.

Consider magazines–a passive, “old” media. Flipping through the latest issue of People or Self magazine while waiting to get your hair cut or on the morning subway is often one of life’s guilty little pleasures. But as Coyne and her colleagues find in their review, for teens and twenty-something women, even just 15 minutes with those pictures of models can be a real challenge to self-esteem. As the authors note, “Laboratory experiments have shown decreased body satisfaction among female college students with as little as 15 min of exposure to fitness and health magazines.”

Yet while paging through a magazine (old media) with images of impossibly beautiful and thin women is a self-defeating exercise, creating your own mashup of those images to make a political statement is an empowering act. And new media allow for that direct action.

Interestingly, the research shows that by their mid-30s, women are less uncomfortable with their own bodies. Tell that to women in the Dove self-image experiment. The soap company, known for its more realistic and sensitive portrayals of women in advertising, asked women to describe their faces to a forensic sketch artist. The artist then sketched their face according to their descriptions and another sketch of what they really looked like. The results showed the women’s images of themselves as always more homely than the real sketch.

Coyne and colleagues’ review is a good start, although it does miss many of the more well-known media scholars, like danah boyd, Eszter Hargittai, and Mimi Ito. And unfortunately for researchers studying media in the digital era, the glacial pace of journal publication and scholarly research means that by the time they get to print, the media has changed, resulting in some reportage that sounds a little like a 19th century anthropologist in the bush. “With the development of new technologies, such as MP3 players, listening to music has become increasingly portable and accessible for emerging adults….” Or this: “The authors hypothesize that college students are likely using cellular phone communication and [social networks] to plan face-to-face communication with friends, as well as using them as additional mechanisms for meeting new people and keeping in touch with others.” I’d say that’s a safe hypothesis.

One wonders whether studying social networks like Facebook is even worth it in the end. Teens and twenty-somethings move on to the next big thing in rapid order. Indeed, there’s already signs that Facebook is over. Too much drama.