News Psychology

Online spaces may intensify teens’ uncertainty in social interactions

Digital interactions differ from real-life ones, complicating social identity

Tracking feature in Snapchat can make people feel excluded.

A feature on Snapchat lets people track their friends’ locations in real time. That can leave people feeling left out in concrete, quantifiable ways.

Bob Collet / Alamy Stock Photo

By Sujata Gupta

Deciphering other people’s thoughts and feelings tends to generate considerable uncertainty. In a conversation, for instance, how does one know if another person’s smile is sincere? In real life, physical cues like body language and tone of voice provide some tangible hints.

Read this story for free

Enter your email address for continued access to Science News

By continuing, you acknowledge that you are at least 13 years of age and agree to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.  Under 13?  Check out Science News Explores.

 

OR
Use up and down arrow keys to explore.Use right arrow key to move into the list.Use left arrow key to move back to the parent list.Use tab key to enter the current list item.Use escape to exit the menu.Use the Shift key with the Tab key to tab back to the search input.