Facebook and Teens

One of the blogs on my Google Reader is apophenia written by danah boyd (lower case intentional, that is her preference).  From her site:

“My name is danah boyd and I am a Researcher at Microsoft Research New England and a Fellow at Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society. I recently completed my PhD at the School of Information (iSchool) at the University of California (Berkeley). My research examines social media, youth practices, tensions between public and private, social network sites, and other intersections between technology and society.”

danah recently spoke at the Penn State Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology.  Thankfully, she posted a rough draft of her comments here.  I encourage you to give it a read.  It will help you understand the appeal of social network sites to teens.  Some of the points I found particularly interesting follow.

1.  Teens are still doing the same things teens have always done.  The gossip, flirt, hang out, bully, and joke around.  The difference is now they can do these things online instead of just in person or on the phone.

2. Online “friends” on social networks are definitely not the same as personal friends.

3. Social networks produce “invisible audiences.”  This means the things we put online may be viewed by audiences other than the ones we originally intended.

4. All social networks are not created equal.  danah describes some very intersting differences in the adoption of MySpace and Facebook.