Review of
Instaread Summary of American Girls Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers by
Nancy Jo Sales
Three out of five stars
First and
foremost, the best line in the summary is on the first page, “Girls coming of
age have long had to contend with questions of conformity, popularity,
self-esteem, and competition.” Although it has been a long time since I was in
the K-12 system, I remember the difficulties for both genders very well. So
many changes are taking place as the transition to adulthood is being made,
groups are made and reformed very quickly, sometimes over the course of a
single day. Neither gender is immune to the problems stated in the quoted
sentence.
Given that the
problems have always existed, the proper focus should be on what is now
different, which is of course the relatively permanent nature of social media.
What was previously a conversation that vaporized as it took place is now part
of the permanent record. This summary is good in many ways and collapses in
others.
As the father
of a daughter that grew up as cell phones became a necessity for teens, the
problems cited here are familiar to me. “Serious crises” pop up unexpectedly
and must be dealt with and being on social media is considered a necessary part
of life. Car rides that used to be interesting are now silent except for the
soft sounds of the thumbs on the smart phone. Therefore, much of what is
reported here has been experienced on the secondary level.
There are areas
where I disagree with the points made in the summary. The most significant is
key takeaway eight “Male-dominated Silicon Valley bears some responsibility for
the sexist, misogynistic culture it has created.” The prime feature of social
media is that it is created by the users, not the creators. The person that
wrote this is simple-minded and clearly has a bias that is not based on fact.
Citing gender bias lawsuits as proof is absurd as every industry has had
lawsuits based on gender bias. The fact that many women have experienced sexual
harassment in the tech industry is also a demonstration of a societal problem
that extends far beyond the tech industry. Social media is an expression of
culture, not a generator of it.
My second disagreement is with the points of key
takeaway five, “The recent rise of social media has presented unforeseen
parenting problems, in part because the online landscape that teenagers inhabit
is one with which parents have virtually zero personal experience.” As the
quote in the first paragraph states, girls have always faced these problems,
and since parents were once teens, they experienced the same problems.
Furthermore, most modern parents also use social media, so they are familiar
with the basics. To say that parents have virtually zero personal experience is
nonsense.
I found this
summary to be incorrect and simplistic, growing up is horrendously complicated,
always has been. While social media has made it more difficult in some ways,
where it counts transitioning to adulthood is still the horrendous mess that
nearly all get through that it always has been.
This book was made available for free for review
purposes.
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