Addiction

Teens are not addicted to social media. The most meaningful statement Boyd had in this chapter is that “teens aren't addicted to social media; if anything, they are addicted to each other” (2014, p. 80). Teens don’t need to use social media, but when they do use it, it is used to interact with their friends that they wouldn't be able to interact with in-person at the time. Many of the reasons teens use social media is because of their parents. It is not like the old days when parents used to say just be home by dark. According to Boyd, “families saw biking around the neighborhood as inherently unsafe” (2014, p. 86). Also, many friend groups just don’t live as close together anymore. Parents need to understand that the reason teens go online a lot is because they don’t have the freedom to interact with their friends in person whenever they want. Teens want to spend time together and they will use whatever resources they have to do interact with one another.

Social media isn't the only way people stay in contact with friends when they are not with them. S. Craig Watkins discussed this in a chapter titled “The Very Well Connected”. He used a family gathering as an example and stated that his cousin was on her phone a lot. When he asked her what she was doing, she responded “I’m texting some of my friends” (Watkins, 2009, p. 47). Once again, a person wanted to connect with their friends and they were doing it by any means necessary. This person used a phone to text and did not use social media, but she was texting for the same reason people use social media. She just used a different platform to interact with their friends. Teens want to interact with each other and will use many different platforms to achieve interaction.