As a high school educator and mother of two, I read with interest Danah
Boyd’s Why Youth (Heart) Social
Network Sites: The Role of Networked
Publics in Teenage Social Life. The researcher says that for a young
person the [SNS] profile is “…a form of digital
body where
individuals must write themselves into being.” How much power this gives to a
young person! As an educator and a
parent I find myself warning young people to be careful what they or others put
on the internet about them. Dana Boyd says
that “through profiles, teens can express salient aspects of their identity for
others to see and interpret. They construct these profiles for their friends
and peers to view.” I have several young Facebook friends, and although I have, on occasion, commented
on their posts, I usually restrict my interaction to “likes” and lots of lurking. (They call it creeping.) Perhaps the “bad”
kids aren’t friend requesting me, but I haven’t been alarmed by most of what I
see them post on Facebook.
- · Selfies and photos of their friends, sometimes taken surreptitiously during school hours (those sneaky devils)
- · song lyrics—usually describing their current state of mind
- · descriptions of food
- · quirky, random statements about the state of the world (their world)
- · status updates regarding torturous homework assignments and boring jobs
- · screen shots of awesome video game plays
- · memes and YouTube videos
- · statements of self-affirmation and sometimes angst
On the other hand, maybe these young folks have
alter egos on Instagram or tumbler and I just haven’t gotten there yet. And of course, there’s always texting…
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