1. A Presentation by Felicia Noyes

2. Cyberbully was a movie which premered
on ABC Family a few years ago that really
gave a clear glimpse into the online
social networks and how teen’s lives,
now-a-days seem to focus around these
networks.
Throughout this presentation, I will be
using examples and clips from the movie
to help illustrate how social networks are
the new hangout place for teenagers.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RT_4QZAYl5g

3. This clips starts at the beginning and goes
until a little after a minute into the video
(sorry, couldn’t find just the part I
wanted)
This beginning scene of the movie clearly
shows the socialization of the internet.
Thanks to Facebook, teenagers can
interact with their friends while doing
other things like getting ready for school.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxZuZVJPJU4

4.  Facebook and social media networks are
becoming the newest, and latest hangout spots
for today’s teenagers.
 “In the 1980s, the mall served as a key site for teen
sociability in the United States (Ortiz 1994) because it
was often the only accessible public space where
teens could go to hang out (Lewis 1990). Teens are
increasingly monitored, though, and many have been
pressured out of public spaces such as streets, parks,
malls, and libraries (Buckingham 2000). More
recently, networked publics have become the
contemporary stomping ground for many U.S. teens.
Just as teens fl ocked to the malls because of societal
restrictions, many of today’s teens are choosing to
gather with friends online because of a variety of
social and cultural limitations (boyd 2007).” (Mizuko,
p.80)

5.  Because of the ease of the
internet, more and more
teenagers are turning
towards the internet to
socialize.
 Teenagers are finding the
internet a place where they
can talk and socialize
without interference from
their parents or from others.
 They can, also, communicate
with anyone at almost
anytime.
 For example, you could
“hangout” on the internet with
your best friend until 2am on a
school night.

7.  Social network sites are used primarily by teenagers
to interact with people they already know, whether
they be acquaintances or good friends.
 “This is not to say that teens do not leverage social
media to develop friendships. Teens frequently use
social media as additional channels of communication to
get to know classmates and turn acquaintances into
friendships. “ (Mizuko, p. 89)
 Teenagers use social networks as meeting grounds
where they can interact and become friends with
people they may know, but might not necessarily
have time to get to know at school or social
gatherings.
 Also, communication through the internet has one
thing that makes it easier, when communicating with
people you don’t know that well, the screen.

8.  This communication isn’t
face-to-face or even speaking
and listening, it is a textual
based communication that
doesn’t have any time
restrictions or expectations.
 When people communicate
face-to-face or through the
phone, their communication
and responses are instant.
 When people communicate
online, they have more of a
leeway of time between
responses, thus they can
think and plan out their
response before sending it.
They, also, have the option
to reread and revise what
they are going to say, before
they say it.

10. This clip starts at 12:40 and goes until
13:37
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxZ
uZVJPJU4&feature=BFa&list=ULyhcfswUJ
RQg

11.  “While most teens who connect with strangers have
no expectation of building a relationship out of this
performed connection, there are teens who happily
add people to whom they are attracted in the hopes
that one of these connections might develop into
something more.” (Mizuko, p.97)
 Taylor added a complete stranger, in hopes that
he could possibly become a love interest.
 Many teens add people they don’t know or seek
out strangers as a way to not only meet and
connect with new people for the possibility for
new friends, but, also, for the possibility of
making a deeper, romantic connection with
someone.

13.  Teenagers (and humans in
general, in my opinion)
tend to create social
groups in which people
are categorized and even
stereotyped.
 We all can list the classic
groups:
 Jocks & Cheerleaders
 Goths & Outcasts
 Geeks & Nerds
 Etc.
 Before the internet, schools were the places where
teenagers would act out these social groups and
stereotypes. But when they went home, they could
escape any negative associations that came with
their stereotype, and wouldn’t be afraid to be
themselves.

14.  While social groups and stereotypes haven’t
really changed over the years, the places in
which they are represented and “acted out”
have changed.
 It used to be, you
would have to go to
school or to the mall
to be faced with
these cliques, but
now all you have to
do is turn on your
computer.
 “Teens have flocked to
social media because
they represent an
arena to play out these
means of status
negotiations even when
they are away from the
school yard.” (Mizuko,
p. 83)

15.  While in some ways this can be good, because it
gives teenagers more opportunities to interact
with one another and socialize, it can also pose
some problems.
 The biggest problem: Cyberbullying
 For teenagers who are bullied and teased at school,
this social transition from public hangouts to private
ones causes distress and problems for some
teenagers.
 It used to be that home was where you could escape
the charade of social groups and cliques, but now
with social media becoming the new norm, a lot of
teenagers find themselves “performing” at home, in
their own private space. Or they find themselves
being teased and harassed in the privacy of their own
homes.

16. The clip starts at 11:30 and goes until
12:50.
This clip shows how the harassment and
negative effects of social cliques can
effect someone at home.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhcfswUJRQg

17.  Everything that goes on at school and your
social life outside of your house, now
continues when you come home.
 Taylor, the main character, couldn’t seem to
escape the negative comments from her
peers.
 It creates a tough situation for teenagers:
deal with the negative comments of one’s
peers on these sites, or get rid of their
account: but by doing this they will be
“erased” from the social scene and their
“reality” all together.

18.  You might ask, why do
teens feel the need to
participate and socialize
on these websites?
Especially if the
?
experiences aren’t
necessarily good ones.
 It’s because social media
has become their world. It
has become the social
norm of how to interact
and communicate.
 If they don’t participate,
then it’s almost like they
don’t even exist.

19. The clip starts at 3:33 and goes until
4:34.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPDEDLP
KQZo&feature=BFa&list=ULyhcfswUJRQg

20.  Throughout the entire movie, Taylor (the main
character) refuses to shut down her “Cliquesters”
page even though it causes her nothing but grief.
 “Skyler Sierra, an eighteen-year-old from Colorado, succintly
articulated the importance of these new media to these teens’
social lives when she explained to her mother that “if you’re not
on MySpace, you don’t exist.” For many contemporary
teenagers, losing access to social media is tantamount to losing
their social world.”(Mizuko, p. 79)
 These social networks are teenager’s life. They are
the popular places to socialize and are becoming the
base of their “social world.”
 To Taylor, and many teenagers, getting rid of their
accounts would be like cutting themselves off of
everything that was going on around them.

21.  Social networks are becoming even
more and more personalized,
where you can now reveal pretty
much everything about you on
them.
 On Facebook’s new feature of
“Timeline”, you can literally
outline and post every significant
event in your life.
 You can tell everyone where and
when you were born, where you
have lived in your life, who’s your
family, where you work, etc.
 It is basically a written and visual
diary of your life. In essence, your
social profile is you.
 And detaching from your profile is
almost like detaching from
yourself. It’s like erasing
everything about you. This is why
Taylor had a hard time getting rid
of her Cliquesters account.

22.  In conclusion, social networking sites can be good and
bad for teenagers.
 They can be good because they can open up new
doors and new connections to teenagers hoping to
meet/get to know people.
 They, also, help strengthen friendships between
individuals, because now they can communicate
whenever they are able to.
 However, there is a downside to social network use:
like the addictions that teenagers develop towards
these sites. Some additions becoming so bad that
they end up hurting the individual.
 And these sites create environments that, while are
easy to use and accessible, they can also become
unavoidable and can cross the lines of private and
public life.

23.  Mizuko Ito et al (2010). Hanging Out, Messing
Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and
Learning with New Media. Cambridge, MA:
MIT.
 Biname, Charles (2011). Cyberbully: An ABC
Family Original Movie.