It's Complicated: The Social Lives Of Networked Teens

The Internet is not safe. The Internet promotes bullying. The Internet is non-communicative. The Internet has zero privacy. The Internet is creating illiterate teenagers. These are just some of the responses many parents and adults say to their children when asked "What's so wrong with the Internet?" danah boyd (chose to style her name in lower case) attempts to shut down all of these statements in her book "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens." In boyd's book, she provides 10 years of research regarding the topic of teens and social networking. Boyd does not shy away from the tough subjects surrounding the dangers of the Internet and social media and covers personal identity, privacy, addiction, danger, bullying, inequality,

In today's world, a teen is surrounded by technology. When using social media, teenagers seem to run into the problem of who they want to be and how they want to be viewed. In other words, teenagers go online to create an identity that satisfies their "friends." On Facebook and Instagram, posting a picture all seems to come down to "How many likes will I get?" Teenagers seem to be concerned with their public image. One of the main reoccurring phrases boyd uses to describe social media is “networked publics.” Boyd explains that these are “(1) the space constructed through networked technologies and (2) the imagined community that emerges as a result of the intersection of people, technology and practice,” (boyd, p. 8). For teenagers and social media, networked publics create a sense of community. It allows teenagers to be a part of the world, that all of their peers also participate in. In networked publics, anyone is able to create a digital presence of themselves, unlike a face-to-face location. Technically, on the Internet, anyone can be who he or she wants to

Boyd tackles this subject next. For years, even before the Internet, teenagers have always wanted their privacy. Teenagers feel that by creating their social media profiles, he or she is able to escape the grasp of their parents. According the boyd, teenagers always want to be a part of the public life, but not completely public. Through her research, she believes teenagers know how to manage the privacy of their social media pages. Teenagers know how to privatize posts from their parents or use secret language with friends to create privacy. Boyd explains how adults are often appalled by what teenagers put on the Internet. In this book, teenagers actually told boyd that they use social media to achieve privacy, as stated before. Boyd states, “Unlike privacy advocates and more politically conscious adults, teens aren’t typically concerned with governments and corporations. Instead, they’re trying to avoid surveillance from parents, teachers and other immediate authority figures in their lives,” (boyd, p. 56). Basically, parents are concerned of the prying eyes of strangers, whereas teenagers are concerned by what their own parents