num_pages: 296
description: boyds new book is layered and smart . . . Its Complicated will update your mind.Alissa Quart New York Times Book Review A fascinating well-researched and (mostly) reassuring look at how today's tech-savvy teenagers are using social media. People The briefest possible summary? The kids are all right but society isnt.Andrew Leonard Salon 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 eye-opening 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 fear-mongering boyd finds that teens often find ways to engage and to develop a sense of identity.Boyds 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.
language: English
title: It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens
publisher: Yale University Press