From Salon
Stop freaking out, parents: Social media isn’t the problem
Author danah boyd argues that social media isn't ruining kids. Society at large is doing the real damage
By Andrew Leonard
Ten years ago, if you were a technology reporter striving to make sense of the rise of Friendster and Orkut and Tribe.net — this whole newfangled “social networking” thingamabob — you were well-advised to visit the campus of University of California, Berkeley, where danah boyd was a graduate student working towards a Ph.D. from the School of Information.” Nobody was thinking harder or more presciently about the implications of social media back then than boyd.
She hasn’t stopped since, through tours of duty at Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, New York University and Harvard’s Berkman Center. As social media has become an essential part of all of our lives, boyd has been participating in it, analyzing it and asking questions about it.... February marks the release of her new book, “It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens.” One of its most refreshing aspects is how grounded it is in conversations with actual teens. “It’s Complicated” is both a report from the front lines and a larger social analysis....