This Pulse Survey explores the nuanced relationships between teens’ technology use, their sense of belonging online, and their sources of offline social support. We examine how young people experience belonging across both their offline and online lives, and where these experiences diverge or align.
We investigate three core questions:
- How do teens experience belonging in their offline and online lives?
- How do young people use virtual spaces to maintain existing offline relationships and to build new online connections, and how do these uses relate to their overall sense of belonging?
- How does the offline support teens receive from friends, family, and school relate to the way they use online platforms and experience belonging in digital spaces?
Our findings reveal how young people are navigating belonging across multiple worlds. While teens draw strength from family and friends in their face-to-face interactions, they also turn to digital spaces to maintain existing relationships and forge new ones. These patterns suggest that the relationship between offline support and online belonging and connection, varies by gender, and on the specific platforms teens use and the people they connect with through them.