This article explores the interplay of online and offline peer interaction in adolescents, suggesting unique influences on social development.
In the internet era, online interaction based on the internet is gradually integrating with face-to-face offline interaction, becoming another crucial context for adolescents’ peer interaction and social development. This article elaborates on the significance of typical characteristics of online interaction—such as anonymity, trans-spatiotemporality, asynchronicity, and archivability—for interpersonal communication. It points out that adolescents’ online interaction primarily occurs among acquaintances, describes the formation process of adolescents’ online friendships and their influencing factors, and discusses the relationship between offline and online peer interaction. The article suggests that future research should further explore the interactive influence between offline and online interaction, investigate the unique roles of different interaction contexts and network environments, examine individual differences in online interaction, and conduct more in-depth studies on the characteristics of interpersonal relationships within specific online social platforms.
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David et al. (2025) studied this question.
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