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J Youth Adolescence (2015) 44:11711174 DOI 10.1007/s10964-014-0223-7
BOOK REVIEW
Danah Boyd: Its Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens
Yale University Press, New Haven, Connecticut, 2014, pp. 296, ISBN 973-0-300-16631-6
Alicia Deogracias
Received: 7 November 2014 / Accepted: 8 November 2014 / Published online: 28 November 2014 Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
Danah Boyd is a researcher at Microsoft Research and a Research Assistant Professor at New York University, as well as a Fellow at the Harvard University Berkman Center for Internet and Society. She has spent years conducting research, examining todays adolescents use of social media and the implications it has on society. She has examined countless past research and conducted hundreds of interviews with teenagers, as well as adults across the country. Boyd has compiled the ndings of her research in an easy-to-read book, Its Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. In her book, Boyd argues that todays adolescents do not differ much from those of past generations, but they have very different avenues for expressing these values and needs. Boyd addresses the main fears and anxieties adults have in regards to teens and social media, and proceeds to thoroughly address each fear to reveal how adults responses to these fears ultimately hinder adolescents ability to learn and grow through the use of social media. Teens are looking for more privacy, more trust, and a place to spend time with their peers, free from adult supervision. Teens are also looking for ways to let their voices be heard. Boyd argues social media provides youth with a way to accomplish these goals, and while they need guidance, restraining adolescents denies them the opportunities to learn and grow on their own.
In chapter one, Boyd examines how teenagers use social media to not only construct their identities but also to express them as well. Boyd argues that most of the dangers and negative aspects adults see when teens use social media is being taken out of context. Teens post a variety of information online but, to an outsider, the intentions behind
the shared information is unclear. When a teenager takes online quizzes such as What Drug are You? their parent may see this and assume they are doing drugs, when in reality...