Researcher looks at the young and the networked

It's Complicated
danah boyd's "It's Complicated" explores the social lives of young people in the Internet age.
Courtesy of the publisher

Research into teenagers and the Internet informs danah boyd's recently released book, "It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens." The author, who prefers an all-lowercase spelling of her name, has had insider access to these digital natives since the dawn of Friendster, which means she has had the opportunity to watch social media grow up alongside, arguably, its most savvy and discerning users.

Even so, she was surprised by some of the findings she reports in her book.

"Because I saw the Internet as so transformative in my life, I assumed that I would find this to be true for many teens," she told the New York Times. "This was not what I saw at all. Instead, teens were responding to a whole host of limitations placed on them by adults and our society by turning to social media as the one place where they could simply hang out with their friends."

The author and researcher joins The Daily Circuit to discuss the Internet revolution and its effect on those who never knew life without it.

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