Teenagers' Use of MSN Features, Discussion Topics, and Online Friendship Development: The Impact of Media Richness and Communication Control

Abstract

With a sample of 248 Hong Kong adolescents, this study probed the impact of media richness and communication control on teenagers' use of MSN® for online friendship development. Both media richness and communication control contributed to MSN's overall functionality and teenagers' self-presentation and friendship development. Media richness positively influenced both social and task communications and shortened the time needed to turn a stranger to friend, whereas communication control showed a positive relationship to social friendship communication. Rich features, such as webcam and MSN Spaces, facilitated the increase of acquaintances, new friends, opposite-sex friends, and total number of friends, whereas messaging helped build close friendships. Overall, media richness and communication control appeared to be valid constructs in explaining teenagers' MSN feature use and online friendship development.

Keywords:

• Communication Control
• Friendship Development
• Instant Messenger
• Interpersonal Communication
• Media Richness

Notes

Note. Italicized items represent secondary features.

*p = .05 (2-tailed). **p = .01 (2-tailed).

Note. Italicized items represent secondary features.

*p = .05 (2-tailed). **p = .01 (2-tailed).

Note. Italicized items represent secondary features.

*p = .05 (2-tailed). **p = .01 (2-tailed).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vivian C. Sheer

Vivian C. Sheer (Ph.D., University of Florida, 1995) is an associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University.