It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of

Networked Teens

Sarah DanielsCS408-01

Final Project

It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of

Networked Teens Author: Danah Boyd

Year Published: 2014

About the Book

This book is about how social media & technology surrounds teenagers and their lives. It consists of eight different chapters and each chapter shows the readers a certain aspect of how social media and technology affect us. A lot of the book consists of Boyd interviewing teenagers about their opinions on social media and certain situations. The chapters that I wrote about in my final project were privacy, danger and literacy, because they were the only ones that were relevant to what we learned in class.

Privacy

Main point discussed: Teenagers are quick to post everything online, what they do not realize is that once you post something online, it is there forever whether or not it is deleted.

Applies to class/Applies to life: We have to take precautionary measures about what we post online because it could affect the future with jobs, scholarships and future acceptances from schools. In addition, people you do not know can find out information about you which is concerning, despite the privacy settings.

Danger

Main point discussed: When posting on social networking sites, because people can see anything, danger is more likely to be surrounding them. In addition, teenagers who live under less fortunate circumstances often are more involved with those they do not know (catfishing) because of a crave for attention.

Applies to class/Applies to life: Depending on what is posted online, it could lead to danger for the future. The more that teenagers crave attention (because of not receiving it at home/at school/with friends) the more likely they will be looking for attention from those they do not know online.

Literacy

Main point discussed: Teenagers often have to teach themselves how to do things on the computer because we are in the generation where WE teach our parents and other friends how to work technology and social media websites.

Applies to class/Applies to life: LNW students had to teach themselves how to code in HTML form so that we could make a webpage. I know as a teenager, I also had to teach myself how to use social networking websites.

Recommend?

I would recommend this book to others if they are looking for an easy read, especially if they are a teenager or young adult because they can easily connect to this generation.

I would not recommend this book for education purposes such as for this class, only some topics are in relation to what we discuss.

Although some of the topics discussed in the book were relevant to class (three out of the eight chapters), the other five chapters were not helpful in relation to this class and doing my final project.

Any Questions?