Have you ever switched your instant messaging status to ‘away’, even if you are at your computer?

Then you are not alone. According to a paper presented at the ICA annual conference, the use of this white cyberlie is common among older teens.

The findings came in a paper by Mariek Vanden Abeele of the Katholieke Universiteit in Leuven, Beligum and Keith Roe, of the Catholic University, also at Leuven, Belgium, entitled White Cyberlies: The Use of Deceptive Instant Messaging Statuses as a Social Norm.

They found that new social norms were emerging, with kids using the IM status in novel ways.

The researchers looked at how the role of instant messaging in the life of adolescents. They found a big difference in honesty between younger and older teens.

The under-14s tended to only use the ‘away’ status when they were literally away from their computer.

By comparison, the over-16s used what the authors described as “a kind of online deception” with their IM status.

This was less about consciously lying to friends online, and more about a way of controlling who teens talked to online.

This was because these teens were often confronted with “empty conversations” – friends asking, ‘What’s up?”, “Nothing much” and the like.

So to avoid these pointless exchanges, older teens tended to up the IM status as a barrier to conversation, said the researchers. In other words, as a way to screen chat requests.

What is more interesting is that this was creating a power dynamic among teens online. The researchers found that older kids routinely said they were ‘away’, even though they are at their computer.

“The away status means I am probably here and if I like you, I will respond,” said Mariek Vanden Abeele.

The away status has become a way of a teen telling the online world, “I am popular”, whereas if someone is available, then it signals “I have no friends” and that you are desperate to talk to someone.

The research suggests that, as often happens with new technology, an online tool designed for one purpose has been appropriated and reimagined by a particular group of users, in this case, teens.