What Your Teen Is Really Doing All Day On Twitter And Instagram

Q&A with dana boyd, principal researcher at Microsoft and author of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens (February 25, Yale University Press).

For all the ways that adults enhance real-life relationships with social media, many have a hard time believing that online connectivity is anything but terrifying in the hands of teenagers. In her new book, boyd addresses the fears and misconceptions that adults have about teens' use of social media, revealing that online networks can be a lifeline and a safety valve for a generation under extreme pressure. Based on 10 years of research, including conversations with teens across the country, boyd explores the motivations and even sophisticated etiquette that governs teens' online behavior, and explains how adults -- including businesses looking to attract a teen audience -- can ditch the fear and condescension, and embrace teens' complicated but important relationship with technology. In Facebook, boyd said that teenagers want to be searchable by their friends, while in Twitter, they’d rather have a small gaggle of followers of their close-knit friends. “They're doing a lot of interacting and engaging around celebrities, pop culture, really funny trending topics that they think are interesting,” she said. As for matters that adults should be concerned about: “There are young people out there who are really doing poorly. Use the technology to figure out who's not doing okay, and figure out ways to intervene,” boyd said. “Let's not get distracted by the technology, and realize that technology is showing us what's happening in kids' lives, and use that as an opportunity to make a difference in their lives, as opposed to thinking that if we make the technology go away we can solve problems.”