This message of danger was heard loud and clear. The teens I interviewed had all heard terrible stories of teenagers being harmed by older male sexual predators they met on MySpace. In particular, girls believed these stories and feared the possibility of being raped, stalked, kidnapped, or assaulted by strangers as a result of their participation online. Their fears were rooted not in personal experience but in media coverage magnified by parental concerns. Teens often referred to the Dateline NBC TV show To Catch a Predator as proof that evil men are lurking behind every keyboard, ready to pounce on them. From news stories to school assemblies, teens were surrounded by messages about the dangers of predation. Although some teens rejected such messages as unfounded, others internalized them. Yet all were aware of the issue and were grappling with their feelings regarding the risks of social media.


kleinbl00:

For the record, Danah Boyd REALLY wants you to buy her book despite the fact that she has nothing to add to the literature. She's taken a handful of interviews and extrapolates them out into a social trend while ignoring legitimate peer-reviewed research by the MIT media lab and others.

And holy fuck there's a lot of words there.

I stand by all my criticisms from the last time this book came up.


posted 3691 days ago