Boyd Chapter 1 Summary

I agree with Boyd that teenagers seem strange online and within different social media sources. Teenagers use many different social media sites and post to these sites with a specific audience in mind. They tend to not realize that there are other people online who can see what they post and they might interpret the post’s meaning 100 different ways from what its intended meaning actually is. Boyd mentions the idea of collapsing contexts and how it’s not possible online. Boyd uses Summer, a fifteen year old girl from Michigan, to explain how on social media it is impossible to see who is viewing what and how contexts can’t be changed online like they can in person. Boyd states: “Because social media often brings together multiple social contexts, teens struggle to effectively manage social norms. Some expect their friends and family to understand and respect different social contexts and to know when something is not meant for them.” (Boyd, 34).  Teens don’t realize that this is not how it works and that they need to be more careful about what they say and how they say it when on social media because they aren’t posting to just one audience; they’re posting to the whole world.

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