U.S. Rural Female Teens’ Understandings of Safety in Social Media Use

• In Event: Issues of Settings and Disparities in Youth Media Research

Abstract

Reflecting upon data collected from a year-long ethnography with 15 adolescent aged young women from communities across the U.S. Midwest, this paper will examine teenagers’ conceptualization of safety and risk in their social media involvements. Specifically, it will look at the ways these teens understood audiences and reputation to be directly related to their safety in social media, and in life outside of social media. It will conclude by reflecting upon how this conceptualization of safety poorly equips teens for their involvements on and offline.

Author

• Aimee N. Rickman, California State University, Fresno