Article
Young people’s social interactions: prominently face to face, with friends and family members, and involving little use of mobile phones
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1There are different types of interactions: the most frequent are those that seek to maintain relationships (54%), followed by those that pursue a practical purpose (34%). Less frequently, there are interactions for strengthening relationships (9%) and, finally, there are negative interactions, which seek to manage difficulties in a relationship (3%).
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267% of the social interactions of young Spanish adults are established face to face. Among those technologically mediated, 19% are via texting, 11% via call or videocall, and only 3% via social media.
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381% of social interactions are conducted with friends or family members (higher degrees of familiarity), while 16% are with simple acquaintances and only 3% with total strangers.
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4Social interactions for managing difficulties in a relationship require significantly more effort than other types of interactions.
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5Showing affection is the interaction that leads to the greatest levels of closeness and that requires the least effort, being the most efficient in the ratio between closeness and effort required.
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6In 70% of the 8,289 face-to-face interactions recorded, young adults did not use their mobile phone at all; in the case of interactions of higher quality, this percentage rises to 80%.

In the analysis of the social interactions, special importance is attached to the medium via which they occur. A little over two thirds of the total were face to face: 8,289 interactions from a total of 12,421. Among the mediated interactions, the most frequent media used (19% of the total) were texting apps (WhatsApp, iMessage, etc.). The least frequent interactions were those established through social media, representing only 3% of the total.