Reviews

It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by Danah Boyd

bluestjuice's review against another edition

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4.0

I found this to be excellently written and insightful, a nuanced, thoughtful analysis of teen culture in the areas of technology, the internet, and social networking. Boyd does a splendid job sifting through the noise and connecting with the demographic in question to assess how teens are actually using the internet and social networking, and her conclusions in areas such as cyberbullying and internet addiction are surprising and encouraging. She takes the view that teen culture has changed less because of the internet age than one might surmise, and reiterates over and over again that the driving force behind the way teens interact with technology is a social one, not a technological one.

tooshark's review against another edition

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5.0

Wow, an incredible read. danah boyd offers easily understood perspectives into American teenage life, and she takes great effort not to focus on the white & middle-class experience. I wish my mother had read this when I was a teenager.

bluestarfish's review against another edition

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5.0

It was great to hear what the teens interviewed had to say about their experiences of social media and its use in their contexts as well as hearing about some of the more overarching context. I've read some of danah boyd's other academic papers and thoughts over the years and appreciated the insight her research has to offer to the discussion of youth and media so it was exciting to have a whole book to read. It's not a technical academic paper (but it is based on them) and has got interesting footnotes and great illustrative examples. Great book. (And you can download a free pdf of the book from danah boyd's website - which also has an amazing Ani DiFranco lyrics site:)

whichthreewords's review against another edition

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5.0

I'm not normally danah boyd's biggest fan but this one I recommend absolutely. Whether you have kids or just spend time online, boyd lays out the various issues clearly and thoughtfully. I'd quibble on a couple of minor points but not anything major; still, I'd recommend reading this back to back with Howard Rheingold's Net Smart (in either order).

bookwyrmjulia's review against another edition

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4.0

I think this book has a lot of truth to it, and a lot of really solid research. I'm impressed by the amount of teen research participation the author was able to get, and I think that makes the book well-rounded.
As someone who grew up in the digital age, I don't think I really "needed" this book because I lived the experience of a teen interacting with social media and digital space. I think anyone who is unsure of whether social media is "good or bad" should read this, and anyone who has questions about the way social media impacts teens would get good information out of this book.
I will add that the formatting of this book made it hard for me to focus. The pages have so much text in massive blocks that honestly made it quite challenging for me to pay attention to what i was reading. But that's a personal problem lol.

dogtrax's review against another edition

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5.0

I am going to check in here now and then as I read this book by the fabulous researcher, danah boyd. Her extensive research and background in social media and the lives of teenagers should make for an interesting read. As a father, and a teacher, and someone who tries to harness technology for storytelling and writing and composing, I am always intrigued by what kids are doing, or not doing, or doing without thinking of what they are doing. I am hopeful that boyd's work will shed some light for me and for others.

rebeccacider's review against another edition

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5.0

Must read for anyone who educates or works with teens.

This book really resonated with my memories of using technology as a teenager, but at the same time revealed so much I hadn't considered about how race, class, and agency shape technology use.

ETA: The natural read after this book is http://www.freerangekids.com/. Just sayin'.

lindy_b's review against another edition

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5.0

Although I have read and enjoyed boyd's other work for some time now, I put off reading this book. I needed emotional distance.

This is because boyd conducted her fieldwork for this book between 2005 and 2012. I graduated high school in 2012, so the teens she interviews are my peers. I too was subjected to constant hand wringing about message boards, Blogger, and MySpace would lead to a lonely life of mindless distraction unless a serial killer nabbed me first. I remember being frustrated because while I could tell that there was a fundamental misunderstanding, I could not articulate it. I didn't necessarily want to revisit that feeling. As I settle into my adult life, however, I keep finding myself in positions where I need to defend younger peoples' interactions with technology as, well, weird, but also developmentally important and probably harmless to the broader workings of society.

As boyd wryly notes, portions of this book were already out of date by the time it went to print, and three years after its publication, this is even more true. However, as boyd herself concludes, her work does provide a record of several specific events and junctures in time; the MySpace/Facebook divide of 2006-2007 is one example. I do think that the book's central thesis regarding teenagers' desire for and creation of public lives driving most of the consternation around their use of the internet still stands, and likely will for the foreseeable future. I also want to take the chapter dispelling the myth of "digital natives" and send it to everyone who works in university administration.

boyd shows more understanding issues of race, class, and sexual orientation than many writers who approach the teenagers-0n-the-internet topic, and I appreciate it. However, discussion of how gender structures non/engagement in networked publics was missing entirely.

This isn't negative or anything but it's not in the title or cover copy and it's worth knowing before you read, but It's Complicated is explicitly about American teenagers.

battybookworm's review against another edition

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hopeful informative reflective slow-paced
Interesting topic but it took me forever to finish. Can feel a bit repetitive but it was also the basis for a class I took so I was sorta familiar with it all. Still recommend if anyone’s curious about their teens internet use or if you’re like me and wanting to look back at your own teen experience in 2010 :)

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library_kb's review against another edition

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hopeful informative medium-paced

4.0

This book's examples definitely show it's age, and I would be really interested in seeing what current research with new social media platforms look like. However, the arguments underlying the examples I think is still very applicable. I know that part of the reason I enjoyed this book is because it aligns with my perspective on social media as a helpful and positive part of life, even with some negative aspects of them. I would recommend this to adults trying to understand why teens gravitate toward social media (and maybe are forced toward online spaces) as well as why media portrayals of the dangers of teens on their phones causing the failure of society is overblown. As an educator, I particularly liked the couple of pages that talked about the way that Wikipedia can be highly useful rather vilified in the education realm. I would recommend, even though as far as technology nonfiction goes it is an old book!