I'm reading Angela Thomas' book, "Youth Online: Identity and Literacy in the Digital Age." I'm really interested in this because I think that kids (and young adults) are getting access to this interesting new way to express themselves. I've been doing curation on Fandoms and I find it really fascinating what words some young people are using to describe themselves (crazy, obsessed, etc). I think this book will help me understand why the youth of today are looking to the web to define who they are and how that's changing the way their view themselves.
Preview:
After flipping through the pages of Youth Online I've found that the book is going to focus a lot on avatars and the interactions of youth through popular media (such as fan sites and fanfiction). There is a little about how youth interact with each other sexually, but the majority of the book seems to focus on what youth do with fiction and how they interact with it. Whether that's just through the use of an avatar and pretending to be someone you're not, or through diving into the worlds of your favorite books or TV shows, it's all coming together to form what young people think of themselves while online. This is perfect for me, of course, because it ties in directly with my emphasis on fandoms and what that means for the people involved.
Social Proof:
Nobody responded to my google+ status about reading Youth Online. I'm hoping that will change, because I know a lot of my friends are interested in identity and what it means. I have a friend who used to argue with me adamantly about how online friendships were just as valid and real as face to face friendships and that he could meet people online and form relationships with them. I think that the identity of those people is what most parents/objectors have a problem with when their children tell them they've found someone online to be with. I was talking with my husband, who is always online. The majority of this interactions with people are online and he's part of several forums for different fan things he likes (his are more games than TV shows or books though). When I asked him about what he thought of identity online he didn't really have anything to say about it. But when I pressed a little more he started talking about the allure of the internet and how it helps people interact with people they otherwise would have never known. He said understanding that allure, why it happens and why people feel drawn to the internet rather than interacting in the normal "social" sphere is probably important to understand.
Related Books:
When I went onto Amazon to see what other books would be connected to youth identity in the digital age, I only found one book recommended: Video Games and Learning: Teaching and Participatory Culture in the Digital Age (Technology, Education--Connections) I wasn't altogether surprised that Amazon linked me to a video game book. But unsatisfied that I was only given one other source to look at, I went to google books and looked there. I was a lot more successful with finding other recommended books for research, but I was a little surprised at what exactly what recommended: Who Do They Think They Are?: Teenage Girls & Their Avatars in Spaces of Social Online Communication and Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the Negotiation of Identity. Two of the top recommendations had to do with females and their identities on the web! Nothing was recommended for men. This was rather shocking to me and I'm itching to find out more. The jump to video games was in conjunction with my previous ideas about fan culture, so it didn't come as a surprise to me, but automatically pinpointing females and their roles on the web is rather shocking. Both have to do with avatars and the way girls present themselves online. Where did that come from? Are women experiencing more of a problem than men are? Or do we just not care about the boys?
Who Cares?
I did a search on twitter for "youth online" and got nothing. I searched for the author and got a bunch of people who "love Jesus" so that wasn't what I was looking for (though good for them). But when I searched #onlineidentity I got a ton of hits. There were people talking about how to protect your online identity, about video games, about facebook giving you a better review than your resume, amongst other things. Online identity is a hot topic, and I didn't even realize it! People are discussing what it is doing for them and why it's important. I find the range of ideas interesting as well. There were critics of identity as well as defenders. Though, I was slightly surprised to find people advocating the protection of their online identity, which is hilarious because that's probably one of the most talked about things! Goes to show you learn something new every day.
Formal Reviews:
I'm actually really shocked. I searched for reviews on this book and could hardly find any. There is the main review that's found on the back of the book (also found online) that mostly discusses what goes on in the book (psychoanalysis, etc) rather than what the reviewers opinion on it is. This was the only review I could find anywhere, even after looking for it in the BYU library. But there is another review on the inside of the book from Len Unsworth of the University of New England that says, "This book deals with crucially urgent concerns for all involved in the education of school-age young people". Other than that, there seems to be nothing. I don't know what that means yet, but I guess I'll find out.
Informal Reviews:
Shockingly, I actually found an informal review! I didn't think I would, so I just skipped to the next section of this blog post, but while searching for syllabi containing the book I came across a review by Christian Royer. He goes through the book giving a basic synopsis and at the end critiques the way she doesn't quite finish the job of talking about identity because she doesn't talk about some of the ethic concerns that revolve around it (plagiarism, privacy violations, etc).
Courses:
I found one course that had Angela Thomas' book in it. It wasn't a required reading, rather a book for which the students could review for an assignment (Irony, since I couldn't find a review ANYWHERE). It looked pretty interesting. The class seemed to be set up very similar to our class, with readings and a discussion board (like a blog I guess). Some of the other readings seem interesting. Other books the students could review in lieu of Thomas' are Life on the Screen: Identity in the Age of the Internet and The Young and the Digital: What the Migration to Social Network Sites, Games, and Anytime, Anywhere Media Means for Our Future. Neither of these books have to do with gender, so that's refreshing, and both look interesting. All three of them are relatively recent, but The Young and the Digital is the most current, having been published in 2009.
Multimedia:
I looked up "online identity" on youtube and found several videos that talk about the subject. I want to post the videos here, but I'm in the library with no headphones so I can't watch them yet. I'll edit this post tonight with the new uploads for Multimedia.
First Impressions of the Book:
I find myself quickly looking through her philosophical theories while spending a lot of time on the actual stories and zooming in on the Identities revolving around avatars and fan culture. She has a section - where I am reading currently - about children and "their stories" where the children she interviewed tell her about what they do online and how. I think this is really fascinating because I can both seem myself in what they're saying (a million tabs open, doing a million things at once) and yet still feel alientated when I think, "this person is like. . .12!" I'm very interested in chapters 4 "Youth Participation: Learning and Growth in the Forum," 5, "Youth Identities: narratives of self in the Avatar" and 6, "Youth Literacies: Understanding Self Through Role-playing the Other." I think these will really help me understand how young people identify themselves and what purpose there is to it. Is it good? Bad? both? I want to know what constructive things are going on with children learning about being themselves online. I think this book is going to be a fascinating read.
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