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wfryer's review
5.0
danah boyd's book, "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens," should be required reading for every parent and educator today. Living as we do in a media-saturated society, many adults are prone to believe the hype and buy the overly-simplistic portrayal by mainstream media outlets of how technology is to blame for many ills which beset both teens and our society as a whole. dana has spent years interviewing hundreds of teens around the United States about their uses of social media. Her anecdotes as well as research conclusions paint an important picture (as her book title indicates) of a much more "complicated" landscape of teen social media use and social lives than many people perceive today.
Digital communication technologies, including social media, have definitely changed the landscape of adolescence and "coming of age" in the United States in the 21st century. danah persausively argues in her book, however, that many of the challenges faced by teens and our society which get blamed on technologies stem from other root causes. She observes "For some adults, nostalgia can get in the way of understanding teens real relationship to social technologies today." Reading her book, and following up that reading with personal discussions with teens you have contact with in your life, is one of the best ways to move beyond nostalgic, often overly-simplistic perceptions of teen feelings & desires about online privacy as well as social media use more generally.
danah observes that "persistence, visibility, spreadability & searchability are all unique characteristics of networked digital publics." Teens and young people in their 20s today are the first generation on our planet to grow up simultaneously in a face-to-face as well as virtual (or "mediated") world. It's a mistake to believe that because many teens are on social media websites like Facebook (which have default settings for a public profile) they don't care about privacy. Media articles and TV programs love to hype the slogan, "privacy is dead," but teen use of mobile applications like SnapChat demonstrates this is false. As adults, we are mistaken if we think teen desires to use apps like SnapChat are entirely rooted in a desire to share inappropriate photos and videos. Certainly inappropriate media sharing ("sexting") is a reality for many teens as well as adults, but we should not generalize all desires to use apps and web services offering privacy as automatically suspect and likely inappropriate. As danah states, "The Internet is NOT just a place where people engage in unhealthy interactions." danah explores issues of privacy and publicity in challenging ways in her book. She astutely observes, "Both privacy and publicity are blurred... Being able to achieve privacy is an expression of agency." These issues are not simple, and adults are well advised to consider these complicated contexts carefully rather than assume (falsely) these issues are black and white, or easily understood and navigated.
As a fan of metaphors, I've liked "amplifier" as a description of technology for many years. danah notes in her book, "The Internet mirrors,magnifies, & makes more visible the good, bad & ugly of everyday life." We commit a significant mistake if we perceive the Internet to primarily be a place where teens make and have the opportunity to make big mistakes, however. Among other things, danah's book is a call for adults everywhere to become better and more active listeners to teens and young people as they experience and share their struggles in life. She observes "Many adult anxieties over teen social media use derive from reluctance to let teens fully participate in public life." In many ways we are a fear-driven society today, and danah's book offers a helpful mirror to consider how mainstream media has fanned the flames of fear surrounding technology and how we can view our world with more balance than extremism.
I highly recommend "It's Complicated" to you, whether you listen to it on your commutes to work (as I did) or you read it in print or eBook form. It's a thought provoking, timely, and immensely practical book which will encourage you to have important conversations with others in your family and community about social media, technology, freedom, fear, and other important topics.
As I listened to the audio version of dana's book from Audible, I tweeted numerous ideas and quotations which resonated with me and struck me as particularly notable. You can check those out using the following search link to my Tweet Nest Twitter archive:
http://twitter.wesfryer.com/search?q=zephoria
Digital communication technologies, including social media, have definitely changed the landscape of adolescence and "coming of age" in the United States in the 21st century. danah persausively argues in her book, however, that many of the challenges faced by teens and our society which get blamed on technologies stem from other root causes. She observes "For some adults, nostalgia can get in the way of understanding teens real relationship to social technologies today." Reading her book, and following up that reading with personal discussions with teens you have contact with in your life, is one of the best ways to move beyond nostalgic, often overly-simplistic perceptions of teen feelings & desires about online privacy as well as social media use more generally.
danah observes that "persistence, visibility, spreadability & searchability are all unique characteristics of networked digital publics." Teens and young people in their 20s today are the first generation on our planet to grow up simultaneously in a face-to-face as well as virtual (or "mediated") world. It's a mistake to believe that because many teens are on social media websites like Facebook (which have default settings for a public profile) they don't care about privacy. Media articles and TV programs love to hype the slogan, "privacy is dead," but teen use of mobile applications like SnapChat demonstrates this is false. As adults, we are mistaken if we think teen desires to use apps like SnapChat are entirely rooted in a desire to share inappropriate photos and videos. Certainly inappropriate media sharing ("sexting") is a reality for many teens as well as adults, but we should not generalize all desires to use apps and web services offering privacy as automatically suspect and likely inappropriate. As danah states, "The Internet is NOT just a place where people engage in unhealthy interactions." danah explores issues of privacy and publicity in challenging ways in her book. She astutely observes, "Both privacy and publicity are blurred... Being able to achieve privacy is an expression of agency." These issues are not simple, and adults are well advised to consider these complicated contexts carefully rather than assume (falsely) these issues are black and white, or easily understood and navigated.
As a fan of metaphors, I've liked "amplifier" as a description of technology for many years. danah notes in her book, "The Internet mirrors,magnifies, & makes more visible the good, bad & ugly of everyday life." We commit a significant mistake if we perceive the Internet to primarily be a place where teens make and have the opportunity to make big mistakes, however. Among other things, danah's book is a call for adults everywhere to become better and more active listeners to teens and young people as they experience and share their struggles in life. She observes "Many adult anxieties over teen social media use derive from reluctance to let teens fully participate in public life." In many ways we are a fear-driven society today, and danah's book offers a helpful mirror to consider how mainstream media has fanned the flames of fear surrounding technology and how we can view our world with more balance than extremism.
I highly recommend "It's Complicated" to you, whether you listen to it on your commutes to work (as I did) or you read it in print or eBook form. It's a thought provoking, timely, and immensely practical book which will encourage you to have important conversations with others in your family and community about social media, technology, freedom, fear, and other important topics.
As I listened to the audio version of dana's book from Audible, I tweeted numerous ideas and quotations which resonated with me and struck me as particularly notable. You can check those out using the following search link to my Tweet Nest Twitter archive:
http://twitter.wesfryer.com/search?q=zephoria
tonyleachsf's review
4.0
A little dated, nearly a decade after it was written. Facebook and MySpace aren’t the hot things with teens.
But also not a lot has changed, and this book is a highly reasonable take on most people’s fears about young people and technology.
But also not a lot has changed, and this book is a highly reasonable take on most people’s fears about young people and technology.
bluestjuice's review
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
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'.
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
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.
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.