By Danah Boyd
“It’s Complicated” is a book that appears to have been inspired by the growing social awareness regarding the increasing presence and role of the Internet and social media, as well as their impact on the teenagers. Danah Boyd explores how the youth have adjusted their lives to fit within the norms of social networking and what changes occur to different aspects of their lives.
The book is comprised of seven major chapters, which represent the major struggles that an average teenager occurs when joining the social media. Besides, these seven parts reflect some of the most important aspects of personality and personal life that are affected by networking. Specifically, Danah Boyd focuses on such elements of the networking lives of teenagers as identity, privacy, addiction, danger, bullying, inequality, literacy (Boyd, 2014). However, each of these aspects-chapters includes a profound discussion of the mutual relationship between social networks themselves, teenagers who are parts of them, and the joint image of parents and society. The author carries out the idea that the “...core activities…” (Boyd, 2014, p.8), such as socializing, self-expressing, chatting, and sharing information are also performed by teenagers in the digital world - similarly to how the youth has been doing so over before the rise of social media.
In the eighth chapter, Boyd concludes that all the changes to the lives of teenagers that have been driven by the rise of social media are based their “...interest in getting...access to public spaces and...to connect to their peers” (Boyd, 2014, p.201). The author argues that the process of the young massively joining social media is a reflection of them taking advantage of technologies to implement their needs and desires as they are often rejected to do so due to the broad protectionism and paternalism from parents and society. Therefore, the general social constructivism theory applied in the book and the stories of lives of different teenagers are used by Danah Boyd to demonstrate why the use of social media by teenagers is a healthy social trend.
Fundamental Ideas and Arguments Expressed in the Book
Danah Boyd expresses numerous ideas in “It’s Complicated.” Some of the ideas are clearly expressed in individual chapters of the book. The author informs the reader of such aspects of the lives of teenagers as identity, privacy, addiction, danger, bullying, inequality, and literacy. Besides, she finally makes conclusions in the last chapter of the book, considering all the information collected.
The author pays significant attention to the research of the aspect of identity in terms of the growth of social media usage. By reviewing numerous case studies and interviewing the young, Danah Boyd expresses the idea that the primary driver of teenagers is actively engaging in the social media life is their constant exploration of social contexts and a search for the best way of presenting themselves (Boyd, 2014, p. 53). Besides, the author indicates that while the online behavior of the young may be seen as relaxed, such vision is incorrect because they struggle with the inability to fit perfectly in this environment and keep their opinions from being taken out of context. Therefore, a major idea expressed in the book is that the young are balancing the desire to express themselves and find easier ways to interact with others and the struggles of the digital and networked lives.
In the subsequent chapters of the book, Boyd provides the information on such aspects of the social media as bullying, inequality, privacy, addiction, and literacy. The discussions, real-life cases, and analysis further confirm the idea that the desire to engage in a digital society is challenging for the youth because they face numerous issues, which are frequently encountered by adults in real life.
Boyd reassures the reader that the youth engage in the online environment because of their desire to identify their position in real life by communication with others using distanced digital methods. She does so by demonstrating that such personal intentions might be dangerous because of the potential struggles and expressing the idea that teenagers might need assistance coping with difficulties. Boyd indicates that “individualistic society” (2014, p. 127) is ineffective in addressing the struggles because the youth create their online community themselves, driven by their internal desires and often constructing the ground for the emergence of dangers that they are yet unable to identify and address.
While each of the seven major chapters of the book provides unique information on a particular aspect of the social life of teenagers, Danah Boyd also conducts some central ideas throughout the entire book. Considering all the discussions and findings included in “It’s Complicated,” it is possible to notice that the author expresses the ideas that the massive engagement of the youth in social media raises the issue of moral panics as the society is feared of the unknown.
Besides, Boyd demonstrates the observation of teenagers gaining more control over their personal space and making their autonomy from the adults more powerful. The statement of the “...difference between being in public and being public” (Boyd, 2014, p. 57) refers to the youth using social media to learn how to be in public, although they simultaneously expose themselves to excessive publicity. As a result, the use of online technologies provides teenagers with more power and control.
Finally, Boyd conducts the idea that the spread of social media leads to the amplification of relationships in society. The inequalities present in the real-life society have been copied to the digital world. As a result, the young did not only create a new network where they have more power and control. Instead, they have also exposed themselves to vulnerabilities due to lack of surveillance and presence of bullying, dangers, and inequality.
Therefore, Boyd’s “It’s Complicated” demonstrates a wide range of fundamental ideas. They vary from the drivers urging teenagers engage with social media to the struggles they face. However, the author uses these approaches to demonstrate that the control and paternalism will not be effective in addressing the trend. Instead, the youth should be assisted in their attempts to fit in the social constructs and identify who they are.
Theory Described in the Book
Danah Boyd does not relate the discussion in the book to any of the theories. However, considering the context of the information provided in “It’s Complicated,” it is possible to suggest that the author refers to the theories of the information society and social constructionism. Both of the theories relate to the social organization and demonstrate qualitative changes to the understanding of the world due to the rise of technologies.
The theory of the information society suggests that various manipulations with information are important activities that are driven by the growth of digital technologies and altering social organization. Boyd (2014, p. 198) indicates that the youth and adults need to become literal and technologically skillful in the “...information society.” Besides, the focus of the entire book is on the growth of the role of technologies and social media in society, as well as the changing perception of these concepts in society.
Another theory that is latently described in the book is social constructionism. It focuses on the exploration of how mutual assumptions of people in society frame their joint vision of the world. In “It’s Complicated,” Boyd discusses the understanding of the world by two parties: the youth and the adults. From the perspective of the social constructionism theory, they construct their own social world models, although the development of social media has led to conflicts of the constructed understandings.
Although the two models are different in terms of their assumptions about the real world, they are also similar as they focus on social organization. Besides, even though they are not explicitly discussed in the book, they may be identified by analyzing the main ideas and arguments presented by Boyd, as well as the key theme. Finally, they are organically connected in “It’s Complicated,” and the two theories support and explain each other, which is expressed in the discussion of various aspects of the social lives of the youth.
To sum up, this book helps me to I identify the theory of teens online Identity which I want to examine in my research. In Boyd’s book conveyed interviews with many Americans teen and parents and I would apply this questions to my paper with Saudis community.
For More read https://seeingcollaborations.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/itscomplicated.pdf
Reference
Boyd, D. (2014). It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
