Behind Their Screens: What Teens Are Facing (and Adults Are Missing)

Description

How teens navigate a networked world and how adults can support them. What are teens actually doing on their smartphones? Contrary to many adults’ assumptions, they are not simply “addicted” to their screens, oblivious to the afterlife of what they post, or missing out on personal connection. They are just trying to navigate a networked world. In Behind Their Screens, Emily Weinstein and Carrie James, Harvard researchers who are experts on teens and technology, explore the complexities that teens face in their digital lives, and suggest that many adult efforts to help—“Get off your phone!” “Just don’t sext!”—fall short.   Weinstein and James warn against a single-minded focus by adults on “screen time.” Teens worry about dependence on their devices, but disconnecting means being out of the loop socially, with absence perceived as rudeness or even a failure to be there for a struggling friend. Drawing on a multiyear project that surveyed more than 3,500 teens, the authors explain that young people need empathy, not exasperated eye-rolling. Adults should understand the complicated nature of teens’ online life rather than issue commands, and they should normalize—let teens know that their challenges are shared by others—without minimizing or dismissing. Along the way, Weinstein and James describe different kinds of sexting and explain such phenomena as watermarking nudes, comparison quicksand, digital pacifiers, and collecting receipts. Behind Their Screens offers essential reading for any adult who cares about supporting teens in an online world. Contents Introduction: What Are We Missing? Why Does It Matter? From the Mouths of Babes Privileging Youth Voices Teens on Screens: What We See and What We Don’t Behind Their Screens, but Not Behind Their Backs Rethinking Familiar Topics 1 Digital Worries in Context You’ve Been Misled Wait: Isn’t Social Media Causing Teen Depression? It’s (Still) Complicated The Fatal Flaw of the “Screen Time Debate” Orchids, Dandelions, and Screen Time Three Lenses A Developmental Lens “You Don’t Even Know Me” An Ecological Lens A Digital Lens 2 The Pull of the Screen “I Can’t Seem to Get Off My Phone” Hard for Everyone, Even Harder for Teens Pulled To—and Away from—People Lights Out, Screens On Pulled from Focus “It’s Big Brain Time” Comparison Quicksand “The Perfect Storm”—and a Caveat Is Authenticity the New Perfect? What’s with Teens and Constant Comparison? Mirror, Mirror on the . . . Screen Dark Pockets, Bright Spots Teens Want Adults to Know 3 Friendship Dilemmas What’s New Is Old—Sort Of Dilemmas of Availability Burdensome Communication Second and Third Guessing Performing Closeness Friendships under the Social Media Spotlight How Many Friends Can You Really Have? Curating the Inner Circle When Friends Struggle in Public Teens Want Adults to Know 4 Small Slights, Big Fights A Toxic Combination: Geospecificity, Attentive Audiences, Anonymous Posting “Hiding Behind a Screen” The Specter of Cyberbullying Blatant Hostility In Front of a Crowd Playing Tag (But Not the Way You Remember) Sometimes You Just Don’t Know Subtle(r) Jabs If You Know, You Know Context Shapes Consequences The Thing We Missed Teens Want Adults to Know 5 Nudes (and Why Teens Sext When They Know the Risks) “It Could Ruin Your Reputation!” Wanted, Pressured, and Shared Without Permission: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter? Why So Short-Sighted? Deciding to Send Consensual Sexting—at Least at First Pressured Sexting Send, Or Else The Ultimate Breach: Sharing Others’ Nudes Without Permission Beliefs → Behaviors Sex(ting) and Gender Sexting Hacks: How Girls Navigate a Landscape of No Good Choices Legal Considerations How Adults Respond When Sexts Circulate “The Porn Crisis” Teens Want Adults to Know 6 The Political Is (Inter)Personal—and Vice Versa Slacktivism and Hashtag Activism Youth and Participatory Politics: New Powers, New Puzzles Rewind What Difference Did One Decade Make? Silence Is Taking Sides Friendships Are on the Line Performing for (Like-Minded) Others: Being Woke and Being Good Performative Activism Posting Out of Turn They’re Canceled The Third Rail: Is It Okay to Listen to the Other Side? Teens Want Adults to Know 7 Digital Footprints That (May) Last a Lifetime Ruined Lives The Trouble with “You Are What You Post” “There’s No Going Back” A Scroll Down Memory Lane The Liabilities of Learning and Changing The (Developmental) Draw of the Digital Efforts to Fly below the Radar The Power of Peers Beyond Their Full Control Adults as (Unwanted) Coauthors Collecting Receipts A Further Threat: Being Canceled The Right to Be Forgotten? The Liabilities of a World That’s Changing Too Feeling Out of Control: Privacy Risks Abound Another Rewind Teens Want Adults to Know Conclusion: The Digital Agency Argument Digital Agency It Takes a Village The Room(s) Where It Happens Conversation Keys “I Used to Think . . . Now I Think . . .” Used to Think . . . Now We Think . . . Looking Again and Looking Forward Acknowledgments Appendix: The Research behind Behind Their Screens Phase 1: Educator Study Phase 2: Youth Surveys Phase 3: Teen Advisory Council RELEVANT PRIOR RESEARCH Notes Introduction Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Conclusion Appendix Index