Boyd’s main point in this article is, “that social network sites are a type of networked public with four properties that are not typically present in face-to-face public life: persistence, searchability, exact copyability, and invisible audiences”. (p.1)
Boyd even defines them as:
1 Persistence: Unlike the ephemeral quality of speech in unmediated publics,
networked communications are recorded for posterity. This enables asynchronous
communication but it also extends the period of existence of any speech act.
2 Searchability: Because expressions are recorded and identity is established
through text, search and discovery tools help people find like minds. While
people cannot currently acquire the geographical coordinates of any person in
unmediated spaces, finding one’s digital body online is just a matter of
keystrokes.
3 Replicability: Hearsay can be deflected as misinterpretation, but networked public
expressions can be copied from one place to another verbatim such that there is no
way to distinguish the “original” from the “copy.” 26
4 Invisible audiences: While we can visually detect most people who can overhear
our speech in unmediated spaces, it is virtually impossible to ascertain all those
who might run across our expressions in networked publics. This is further
complicated by the other three properties, since our expression may be heard at a
different time and place from when and where we originally spoke. (p9)
She goes on to say how these four properties alter the social dynamics in which teens live. How teens are deeply rooted in how the site supports socializing among preexisting friends and groups. How teenagers are more focused on socializing with people they knew personally and celebrities that they adore. By socializing on the net, teens are taking social interactions between friends into the public sphere for others to witness. (p. 7) In choosing Friends, teens write their community into being; which is precisely why this feature is so loved and despised. (p.11)
Boyd takes time to describe why teens are attracted to social websites, but her main theme seems to be that teens are there because their friends are. Also those that are not participating are due to parent or technology restrictions or that they think it is stupid for the most part. Boyd seems to be saying that social networking for teens is just an extension of their current friendships.
Citation: boyd, danah. (2007) “Why Youth (Heart) Social Network Sites: The Role of Networked Publics
in Teenage Social Life.” MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Learning – Youth, Identity, and Digital
Media Volume (ed. David Buckingham). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
