danah boyd at RMIT

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending danah boyd's talk at RMIT in Melbourne CBD. Though I was late and had to leave early (very unlike me for both of those things!), her talk was really interesting. danah is very animated and her presentation was really well done. She is well known for her research into young people's use of social networking sites (SNSs) (Facebook being the predominant one currently).

Interesting points she spoke about included:
* Young people use social networking sites as one way of being in a public, rather than in the public.
* While there are public messages that are given, there is not necessarily a public meaning, i.e., only insiders will understand certain meanings.
* Young people expect surveillance but find ways to carve out their own privacy.
* Young people are about hacking the attention economy, rather than hacking secure spaces.
* There is a continuum of drama in young people's lives. What may be seen as ultra dramatic for adults, might only be weighted a little within the use of SNSs.
* Bullying is a very adult driven notion. Within the scope of possible drama, harassment, teasing and cyber-bullying occur on this continuum. She also related what I believe to be true that cyber-bullying has not necessarily meant that bullying as a whole has increased; we are just a lot more aware of it because the Internet allows us to view it happening.

She brought up the notion of the flaneur where it is important to see and to be seen, and therein lies the expectations of participation in the digital age.

For more info about danah, see http://www.danah.org/