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Social media amplifies teen social practices. Gossip and rumors spread quicker and farther due to social media. Social media makes friend hierarchies more visible.

“Positive interactions are enhanced through social media while negative interactions are also intensified” (p. 114).

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Teens are exhibiting the same social patterns as they always have, but social media is the new space in which they do it. In the past, teens would gather in public spaces like malls, parks and parking lots and network with each other for a variety of purposes. Now, social media is one of these places where teens develop and maintain friendships with peers.

“Social media tend to accentuate the burning trend through the past century toward teens’ developing social and cultural forms that are segregated from adult society” (p. 113).

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Social media is a way to make and maintain friendships and form relationships with peers. What takes place online is reproduced and discussed with peers offline. Social media also opens the opportunity for teens to curate their public identities by choosing what information peers have access to and by  publicly displaying their connectedness to others.

“For most teens, social media do not constitute an alternative or “virtual” world. They are simply another method to connect with their friends and peers in a way that feels seamless with their everyday lives” (p. 84).

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While social media allows teens to theoretically make friends outside of their geographic location, most only friend people who are acquaintances or friends of friends. Friending strangers is highly stigmatized due to “stranger danger”.  Students  who are socially isolated in their “real” life have the opportunity to find allies online.

“While social media have the potential to radically alter the friendship making processes, most teens use these tools to maintain preexisting connections, turn acquaintances into friendships, and develop connections through people they already know” (p. 91).

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At one point the author discussed how adults are not a part of the social media world that teens occupy. The author stated “the role of adults are generally relegated to the role of provisioning or monitoring youth media ecologies rather than as co-participants” (p. 83). I wonder if this separation of youth and adults on social media is the same now that there are adults who grew up in the social media age and are just as active participants. What spaces do current teens have on social media that segregate them from adults who use the same sites and apps?

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Access to the Internet: how and where

-       “Additionally, there is the question of not only how we access the Internet but where we access the Internet.”

-       Socioeconomic status can determine the ability of a student to access the Internet, but in more ways than just a, “can I or can’t I” situation

-       The differences in how we can access the Internet determine how we can then use it

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Speed and quality of connections at schools

-       “During our time in the field, only 30 percent of U.S. public schools were meeting the Federal Communications Commission’s minimum Internet access goal of one hundred kilobits per second per student…”

-       Internet access in schools was not always equal

-       Lower income students technically had access to Internet but it was not always as good

-       Access to technology in better funded (higher income) schools tends to be better than lower income schools

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The mobile breakthrough

-       “No development has impacted the media and connected lives of black and Latino teens more than mobile phones.”

-       The ability to access the Internet and social media via mobile phones was utilized highly by younger ethnic minorities

-       This helped “bridge the gap” between the higher income and lower income

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The full integration of technology into the lives of teenagers

-       “When Freeway students shared memories of their earliest experiences with social media- MySpace- they consistently spoke about the immense personal satisfaction they gained from building their own personal profiles.”

-       Teenagers have integrated technology and social media into their lives to the extent that their platforms are an extension of themselves

-       Their methods of personal expression are really ingrained in their online, social media profiles

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Not a disagreement, but a surprise (Kate) 

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Not a disagreement, but a surprise (Kate) 

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There wasn’t anything that I disagreed with in particular, but there was something I was really surprised by. The authors talked about how black, Latino, and lower income teenagers were more active on social media than their white and wealthy peers. Given that I grew up around white, wealthy students, I’m really surprised by that. So much of what I see on social media is people flaunting  various aspects of their lives and I would think that the white/wealthy students would fall more into that category more often.

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1. “Participatory politics are acts that are interactive, peerbased, not guided by deference to elites or formal institutions, and meant to address issues of public concern” (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. 3)

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1. “Participatory politics are acts that are interactive, peerbased, not guided by deference to elites or formal institutions, and meant to address issues of public concern” (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. 3)

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·   Usually takes place online

·   Starting political groups, writing and distributing political takes, sharing political content, participating in political acts such as boycotts, engaging in political discourse, and engaging politicians are all considered participatory politics

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2. Peerbased community, especially the online realm, allows for political discourses that stray from the dominant ideology a platform. The nature of the online realm affords wider audiences for proliferate creative political content and available to be mobilized.

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2. Peerbased community, especially the online realm, allows for political discourses that stray from the dominant ideology a platform. The nature of the online realm affords wider audiences for proliferate creative political content and available to be mobilized.

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·      Political videos, images i.e. memes, and text based posts are all political content

·      The space allows for not just flouting ideological hegemony, but allows access to, or even influence of, the political sphere for people who may be kept out of formal institutions due to discrimination or cost barriers i.e. racialized people, people who have not attended college, young people

·      45% of youth consume news at least once a week via their social media feeds

·      84% of youth would like help understanding how to determine if news online is trustworthy

·      “We all have a friend who tries to mobilize their social network for what they perceive to be a worthy political cause by sending e-mails or text messages that encourage us to act. For these reasons we regard the norms, networks, and skills that develop in online friendship- and interest-driven contexts as a kind of digital social capital with the latent capacity for mobilization when a relevant situation arises” (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. 16).

·      Young people interact in interest-based groups online, i.e. around aspects of popular culture or games, and those networks expose individuals to ideas held outside of family, friends, or local offline peer groups, which becomes the impetus for participatory politics and ultimately civic engagement- “Youth who were highly involved in nonpolitical, interest-driven activities are more than five times as likely to engage in participatory politics and nearly four times as likely to participate in all political acts as those infrequently involved in such activities” (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. 6)

·       “Contrary to the traditional notion of a technological digital divide, the YPP study finds that overwhelmingly, white (96 percent), black (94 percent), Latino (96 percent) and Asian American (98 percent) youth report having access to a computer that connects to the Internet" (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. vii).

·      “Participatory politics is generally equitably distributed across different racial and ethnic groups” (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. 6)

·      Black youth are more likely than any other racial or ethnic category to have engaged in participatory politics, institutional politics, or voting

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3. Individual’s engagement in participatory politics is indicative of their engagement in other political activities: Individuals do not engage in participatory politics exclusively, or in place of other political activities.

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3. Individual’s engagement in participatory politics is indicative of their engagement in other political activities: Individuals do not engage in participatory politics exclusively, or in place of other political activities.

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·      90% of youth who engage in participatory politics either vote or engage in institutional politics

·      37% of youth engage in participatory and institutional politics

·      Youth political participation is still the exception not the norm, despite all this

·      "Focusing on participatory politics, therefore, is important for anyone concerned about the politics of young people and, more broadly, about the future of politics in the United States and abroad" (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p. x).

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4. The popularization of divergent discourses results in the “traditional political entities”taking them up as legitimate political discourses, in an attempt to engage participants, which shifts the larger political climate

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4. The popularization of divergent discourses results in the “traditional political entities”taking them up as legitimate political discourses, in an attempt to engage participants, which shifts the larger political climate

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·      In other words, mass engagement in participatory politics shifts the Overton window

·      “The data make it clear that participatory politics represent an important portion of youth political activity as it is practiced today. Thus, if we ignore emerging forms of participatory politics, we will miss a key element of overall political activity” (Cohen & Kahne, 2012, p.13).

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Teens use social media to do what they have always done in other friend spaces - “socialize with friends, negotiate peer groups, ﬂirt, share stories, and simply hang out” (85) with close, intimate friend groups, while also networking with larger groups of peers.  It allows them to form a culture separate from adult society through “new kinds of authoring of public identities, public display[s] of connectedness, and access to information about others” (85).  It “mirrors and magnifies” both positive and negative interactions between teens.

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“While the dominant and normative social media usage pattern is to connect with friends, family, and acquaintances, there are some teens who use social media to develop connections with strangers,” (89). Social media allows new connections to be formed and exploration of interests/topics not supported in schools - LGBT identities, puberty, gaming, friendship for those who have trouble making friends within their community. However, there is a stigma against making friends purely through the internet due to perceptions of online communities and predators.

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Accepting “friends” is complex and contested: “By and large, the teens we interviewed include as Friends those they know—friends, family, peers, and so on. Yet, even within the confines of this general rubric, there is immense variation,” (95).  Teens may add friends as a measure of popularity.  Others will only add those that they know, finding friend collecting contrived or disingenuous.  People may also choose to add those that they want to develop relationships with, now or in the future.  Added complexities stem from practices of unfriending and reciprocity, and the divide between online friendships and real relationships as well as the effects online maneuvering can have on real relationships, and jockeying for status.

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“Teens use social media to develop and maintain friendships, but they also use them to seek attention and generate drama. Often the motivation behind the latter is to relieve insecurities about popularity and friendship. While teen dramas are only one component of friendship, they often are made extremely visible by social media,” (104).  While these behaviors are not necessarily new to teens or being increased by social media, they are affected by the constant connectedness social media provides and the rapid flow of information that the internet allows

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The piece offers, from my experience, a largely accurate depiction of young people’s use and participation in online culture around 2008.  As social media and its prevalence in schools has changed greatly since this time, some work would need to be done to update students’ online practices.  Most phenomena mentioned have extant parallels, though some I struggled to find a current equivalent to, such as MySpace’s “Top Friends” feature (there are similar things, but they are not as contentious, in my opinion).

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Digital and networked media play a large role in student’s lives

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Digital and networked media play a large role in student’s lives

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“On average, the youth in its sample lived in households with 3.5 televisions, 2.9 VCRs or DVD players, 2.1 video-game consoles, and 1.5 computers”(2005) p.32

Mobile phone usage increased

Demographics such as gender and race affect usage and access

Girls were more likely to own a phone and less likely to play video games

“The Kaiser survey found that girls spent significantly more time than boys listening to music and significantly less time than boys playing video games” p. 33

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“Hanging out,” “messing around,” and “geeking out” 

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“Hanging out,” “messing around,” and “geeking out” 

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““Hanging out,” “messing around,” and “geeking out” are three genres of participation we found to be widespread among the American kids and teenagers who participated in our studies.” p. 75

Hanging out is more of a casual social interaction

Can be fluid between online and offline (multitasking)

Includes status updates and posts on social media

Used to create meetings in real life

Playing games, making videos, listening to music

Messing around

A type of “fortuitous searching” or “experimentation and play”

Looking for information on the internet

“Fortuitous searching represents a strategy for finding information and reading online that is different from the way kids are taught to research and review information in texts at school.” p55

Predictive

Time is not dedicated to this in school

Geeking out

Using media to interact with one genre or fandom

Watching anime, playing a specific game (MMORPG’s were big then)

People used to have “geek cred” meaning knowledge about the internet

Creating player generated guide and wikis

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Heightened sense of time usage and productivity

Use of social media sites while working on school work

However, students have always had workarounds for limitations adults attempt to put on the use of internet and technology

Texting in class: “You want to talk in class, but then like you’re in different classes and so this is the only way you can talk to them” p48

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Many of the ways that youth were interacting with media were entirely new and created by the youth themselves to serve their own cultures and subcultures

Workarounds to be able to use technology in the way that they wanted instead of the way adults wanted

“In response to these regulations, teenagers develop work-arounds, ways to subvert institutional barriers to hanging out while in school” p. 48

People also found new ways to share the knowledge that they gained

Use of pirating sites like BitTorrent

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I didn’t so much disagree with any arguments the authors made, but it was more about the sheer outdatedness and lack of connections the authors had. It honestly felt like reading a paper about cleaning your house by a person who has never cleaned a house before. I really couldn’t help but think,  “really? This idea is novel to you?” Aspects like “fortuitous searching”, or as normal people call it, googling stuff because you are curious about it, are skills that I suppose for the time would be novel and fascinating, but now, those sorts of skills are expected.