A nuanced, intimate picture of how young people live with and on social media. Today’s young people find themselves at the center of widespread debates about their online safety, and they are often told that social media platforms affect their mental health and body image by exposing them to cyberbullying and distressing images. Foregrounding their voices and experiences, The Kids Are Online explores how young people navigate their identities across platforms and how they make and break the rules set by social media companies. Ysabel Gerrard talked to over a hundred young people to unpack the myths and realities of their networked lives. Instead of framing social media use as good or bad, she identifies moments when young people encounter social media in paradoxical ways–good and bad at the same time–and uses the concepts of stigma, secrecy, safety, and social comparison to help us make sense of young people’s experiences. The Kids Are Online proposes a series of recommendations for parents, schools, technology companies, and policymakers to imagine how we might build safer social media systems.
