Date of Award

1-1-2012

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Specialization

Communication and Leadership

School or Department

School of Leadership Studies

First Advisor

Dr. Nobuya Inagaki

Second Advisor

Dr. Larry Massey

Abstract

It appears that in today’s society someone may be lead on to believe that the Internet has begun to take over direct communication skills within families. Parents in this day in age have to continuously make every attempt, in order to maintain an open line of communication with adolescents in their family. However, with social media on the rise with adolescents, parents may have a challenge on their hands. Today is the age of technology, and 85% of teens between the ages 12-17 engage at least some form of electronic personal communication, which includes text messaging, sending email or instant messages, or posting comments on social networking sites (Lenhart, Madden, Smith, & MacGill, 2007a). This study will also go into detail of how and why teens choose to use social media as an outlet; as well as what parents can do to maintain an increasing level of communication with their teens. This research study poses the notion to possibly suggest if social media is having an affect on adolescent communication skills within families. In order to justify and provide qualitative evidence of communication possibly being affected between adolescent communication and their families a focus group was held; and the information from this study is provided.

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