Tag: danah boyd

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Digital

[AUDIO] DANAH BOYD — Online Reflections of Our Offline Lives

This looks like an interestindanah_photog podcast to listen to:

Steeped in the cutting edge of research around the social lives of networked teens, danah boyd demystifies technology while being wise about the changes it’s making to life and relationship. She has intriguing advice on the technologically-fueled generation gaps of our age — that our children’s immersion in social media may offer a kind of respite from their over-structured, overscheduled analog lives. And that cyber-bullying is an online reflection of the offline world, and blaming technology is missing the point.

Categories
Digital

[BOOK REVIEW] danah boyd It's Complicated

itscomplicated

A review by Tara Brabazon in Times Higher Education

Danah Boyd’s latest book is a strong text in the dire field of new media studies. The introduction, however, does not bode well. Boyd states that her purpose is “to describe and explain the networked lives of teens to the people who worry about them – parents, teachers, policy makers, journalists, sometimes even other teens”. While framed as a guide to understanding young people (these days), her introduction does not do justice to her research.

In the eight chapters that follow, the book is at its best when probing privacy, danger, bullying and literacy. While these digital folk devils could have overwhelmed the argument, the research is sound and the interview material rich. Boyd’s goal is clear: to capture and express “the voice” of “teens”. The problem with such an aim is that technology is not generationally specific. People of all ages use YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. There are distinct sociologies of platform use, but age is merely one factor to consider.

You can download a full PDF of the book.

Categories
Digital

Myths about young people and social media via @Zephoria #DigitalParenting

itscomplicatedAn interesting piece on Five Myths About Young People and Social Media

Teenagers have always been attracted to public spaces where they can hang out with friends, find new friends, and talk endlessly with peers about matters that concern them, away from parents and other authority figures. Such gatherings are crucial to human development; they are how teenagers expand their social horizons, share views on issues that matter to them, experiment with different versions of their personality, and develop the sense of independence from parents and other adults that they must in order to become adults themselves.

Until rather recently, the places where teens would find one another were physical, geographical spaces, but today they are more often located in cyberspace. Many adults are puzzled, and some are apppalled, by the amount of time teens spend online and by what they seem to do there. A terrific new book by danah boyd (who spells her name without capitals), entitled It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens, helps us make sense of it.

Read full piece which deals with:

  1.  Myth #1:  Technology creates social isolation.
  2. Myth #2: Teens are addicted to technology and social media.
  3.  Myth #3: Teens these days have no appreciation of privacy.
  4. Myth #4: Social media put teens at great risk from sexual predators.
  5. Myth #5:  Bullying through social media is a huge national problem.

All myths that I’ve debunked in my book too  (with more of UK focus) .. looking forward to reading danah boyd’s book!