What is new about how teenagers communicate through services such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram? Do social media affect the quality of teens’ lives? In this eyeopening book, youth culture and technology expert danah boyd uncovers some of the major myths regarding teens use of social media. She explores tropes about identity, privacy, safety, danger, and bullying. Ultimately, boyd argues that society fails young people when paternalism and protectionism hinder teenagers’ ability to become informed, thoughtful, and engaged citizens through their online interactions. Yet despite an environment of rampant fearmongering, boyd finds that teens often find ways to engage and to develop a sense of identity. Boyd’s conclusions are essential reading not only for parents, teachers, and others who work with teens but also for anyone interested in the impact of emerging technologies on society, culture, and commerce in years to come. Offering insights gleaned from more than a decade of original fieldwork interviewing teenagers across the United States, boyd concludes reassuringly that the kids are all right. At the same time, she acknowledges that coming to terms with life in a networked era is not easy or obvious. In a technologically mediated world, life is bound to be complicated.
[...]... large, the students were cordoned off in their own section on the sides of the stands while parents and more “serious” fans occupied the seats in the center Most of the students in the stands were white and divided by grade: the upperclassmen took the seats closest to the field, while the freshmen were pushed toward the back Girls were rarely alone with boys, but when they were, they were holding hands The. .. it’s the place to go when she doesn’t know how to contact someone directly The social media tools that teens use are direct descendants of the hangouts and other public places in which teens have been congregating for decades What the drive-in was to teens in the 1950s and the mall in the 1980s, Facebook, texting, Twitter, instant messaging, and other social media are to teens now Teens flock to them... allowed teens to see themselves as connected through mass media, social media allows contemporary teens to envision themselves as part of a collectively imagined community Teens engage with networked publics for the same reasons they have always relished publics; they want to be a part of the broader world by connecting with other people and having the freedom of mobility Likewise, many adults fear networked. .. Although the underlying structure of physical spaces and the relationships that are enabled by them are broadly understood, both the architecture of networked spaces and the ways they allow people to connect are different Even if teens are motivated to engage with networked publics to fulfill desires to socialize that predate the internet, networked technologies alter the social ecosystem and thus affect the. .. is not how teenagers themselves would describe the shifts that are under way More often than not, they are unaware of why the networked publics they inhabit are different than other publics or why adults find networked publics so peculiar To teens, these technologies—and the properties that go with them—are just an obvious part of life in a networked era, whereas for many adults these affordances reveal... understanding teens relationship to social media Although many adults think otherwise, teens engagement with public life through social media is not a rejection of privacy Teens may wish to enjoy the benefits of participating in public, but they also relish intimacy and the ability to have control over their social situation Their ability to achieve privacy is often undermined by nosy adults —notably their... socialize broadly with peers in an informal way Teens are looking for a place of their own to make sense of the world beyond their bedrooms Social media has enabled them to participate in and help create what I call networked publics In this book, I document how and why social media has become central to the lives of so many American teens and how they navigate the networked publics that are created through... in which teens can easily congregate with large groups of their peers More significantly, teens can gather in them while still physically stuck at home Teens told me time and again that they would far rather meet up in person, but the hectic and heavily scheduled nature of their day-to-day lives, their lack of physical mobility, and the fears of their parents have made such face-to-face interactions... feel part of the community Furthermore, extensive use of in-group language and shared references made it easy to identify other members of 4chan, thereby enabling another mechanism of status and community.19 As teens have embraced a plethora of social environments and helped co-create the norms that underpin them, a wide range of practices has emerged Teens have grown sophisticated with how they manage... teens share what they do is neither arbitrary nor dictated by the social media sites where they hang out—nor by the norms that govern adults’ use of those same sites The youth-oriented social context in which teens share matters Teens don’t see social media as a virtual space in which they must choose to be themselves or create an alternate ego They see social media as a place to gather with friends . America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data boyd, danah (danah michele), 1977– It’s complicated : the social lives of networked teens / danah boyd. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. with. By and large, the students were cordoned off in their own section on the sides of the stands while parents and more “serious” fans occupied the seats in the center. Most of the students in the. though many teens are frequent texters, the teens were not directing most of their attention to their devices. When they did look at their phones, they were often sharing the screen with the person