Danah Boyd's Complicated Summary

Social media has become mainstream, but should we go with or against the current? “Its Complicated” by Danah Boyd is a comprehensive guide on the teens of today and how they interact online. Boyd is a social media scholar and a youth researcher who has spent almost a decade compiling data in order to grasp what social media is doing to the modern day teens. There are three overall main concepts the book focuses on: What is and isn’t new about life with social media, what does it add and take away from teens’ social life, and how can we take advantage while still limiting the potential abuse of social media. The purpose of this review is to give a well thought out summary of the three main points in the book while also giving arguments that show another side.
The first main concept is what’s new or isn’t new about life with social media. Boyd believes all teens, no matter the decade, inherently need to socialize with their peers. Communicating with friends in a social space is not a new idea. However, the way in which teens communicate is always changing. In fact, social media to teens of today is a place to hang out, much like the mall or behind the bleachers were to teens of the past. ”The spaces may change, but

However, I was a young teen when the smartphone became mainstream and can still remember the day in which they were no longer considered taboo. The year was 2007, I was 14 years old riding the bus to school and everyone was crowded around a particular student who had just unveiled her newest toy; an iPhone. She went through its many features, the calculator, notes, calendar, etc. I can still remember thinking, “Wow it has a calculator and a calendar!”. Looking back this experience is funny to me because if you could see in my backpack, at the time, I had a calculator, notebook, and planner I just thought they were cool because a smart phone was a new