Social Media and Teenagers

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Hello to all of you out there and welcome to Tech Talk. Today we’ll be talking about teenagers and technology with our guests, Jenny and Charles. Thank you both for being available to talk to us today. Jenny, let’s start with you. Can you give us some background about yourself?

Well, I’m a mother of two teenagers myself, so it’s an issue which concerns me. We hear a lot about teenagers bent over their computers every day and doing nothing else, and this worries many parents who hark back to their own childhood of playing sports or running round the streets with their friends. In other words, they think of face to face rather than screen to screen communication. It is a common concern, I think, that teens might be losing the desire to contact each other in the real world, so to speak, and are increasingly shutting themselves off from social interaction in which the physical presence of another person is relevant. But then again, I grew up with easy access to computers and social media, and I don’t regard myself as especially prone to locking myself away in my room and communicating only through instant messaging or some other form of social media.

I wonder if this isn’t an exaggerated view encouraged by the media. I see. Jenny, do you see this as an example of media hype? Not precisely. I see it more as issues raised which need serious investigation before we can come to any conclusions.

Interestingly enough, I’ve just been reading a book by Dana Boyd, a digital anthropologist. She has spent the past decade analysing how teenagers use social media by watching the subtle cultural signals, rituals and group dynamics, and after conducting extensive research in 18 states across the US, she argues that some of the received wisdom about social media is wrong. Teenagers are not being harmed by social media, as adults often fear. Instead, they are developing adaptive skills for this new digital age. Interesting.

Charles, how do you feel about this? Well, what she’s saying is that though their behaviour is baffling to adults, teens are fine. I think my own experience supports that, though I realise it might be a hard message for many parents to swallow. The key point is that social behaviour is adaptive, and people in power, that is parents in this case, rarely understand the coping strategies being used by others. Jenny, do you think this demonstrates a fundamental change in the way teenagers in our society are behaving?

Well, we’re still human beings, and our basic social impulses haven’t changed. Boyd argues that teenagers have two basic impulses. They want to explore the world, and they want to socialise with their friends. In previous generations, children could do this by wandering around their neighbourhoods or congregating in places such as shopping centres and parks. But these days, they often cannot, partly due to their parents’ fears about danger, and partly due to less free time generally.

So instead, children rush to cyberspace. Adults have always been wary of teenager behaviour, and have often regarded play as a waste of time. In much the same way, they are worried about their gathering in cyberspace. But actually, this is just symptomatic of a desire to socialise. So how do you see social media use evolving over the next few years?

I don’t see any major change. Teenagers are leading the way here, and in my view, we’ll soon see adults using social media in a similar way to teens. The only difference would be that most adults have jobs, and this necessarily limits the time they can spend on social media, and the use they put social media to. Now, I’d go along with that, Charles. What we have now is just the tip of the iceberg.

I’d like to see more of a balance, though. We should have the courage to give kids more freedom physically to roam in the real world, alongside their travels in cyberspace. Thanks to both of you. Send us your comments on today’s discussion at hashtag.