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Totally Wired

What Teens and Tweens Are Really Doing Online

St. Martin's Griffin, March 2007
ISBN: 978-0-312-36012-2, ISBN10: 0-312-36012-6,
5 1/2 x 8 1/4 inches, 224 pages,
Trade Paperback, $13.95

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Categories and Subcategories

See All Categories Media Issues, Communication & Journalism Mass Media & Communication Sociology Sociology - All Titles

The social activities of teenagers may not have changed much in the last decade, but the wheres and the hows of chatting, gossiping, flirting, and bullying could not be more different. Today's teens exist in a digital world, and their social lives take place through digital devices. They hook up on MySpace, speak out in blog entries, and make plans via text message. Using a cell phone as a tracking device? Clearly, being a teen today isn't the same as it used to be. So what are LiveJournal, Xanga, Facebook, and MySpace, and what exactly are teens doing on these sites?

Totally Wired provides an inside look at what teenagers do online and how they use technology. Author Anastasia Goodstein interviews a cross-section of industry professionals and teenagers to get access to real statistics and revealing anecdotes. She looks at social networking, blogging, cyberbullying; she explores popular websites like LiveJournal, Xanga, and Facebook; she writes about what the digital world means for the teens that live in it.

Praise

"Totally Wired is both an awakening and a comfort for adults who feel lost in the infinite alleys of cyberspace. Goodstein gives it to us straight - honestly examining the threats to kids, but also including fresh insights into the positive ways young people use the wired world in their lives."—Joe Kelly, president of Dads & Daughters and author of Dads and Daughters: How to Inspire, Understand, and Support Your Daughter

"A must read for parents (and future parents) of teenagers. Consider Anastasia Goodstein as the daughter you totally 'get' - explaining all the behaviors of the daughter you totally don't 'get.' Consider this a parent/teen dictionary."—Atoosa Rubenstein, former editor in chief of Seventeen

"Goodstein offers a thoughtful and practical guide to the rich variety of popular tools currently available online. From blogs to instant messaging to social-networking sites and cell phones, she discusses this broad topic in a straightforward yet comprehensive style. Each section opens with basic definitions of the technologies and then quickly demonstrates through interviews how teens make use of them. Later sections address more conceptual issues like bullying online, parental control . . . Goodstein covers many key issues for teens as well: illegal downloading of music and video, plagiarism . . . Her conversational writing is accessible and non-condescending. Fortunately, this is not just a gloom-and-doom text highlighting the fears and dangers of online life. Goodstein includes great detail about how tools like blogs, social-networking sites, and podcasts have many positive uses that can enhance a teen's education, creativity, and social life. Her tips and strategies will allow readers to make the most of these technologies in ways that are useful, fun, and, most importantly, safe."—Matthew L. Moffett, School Library Journal

About the Author(s)

Anastasia Goodstein

Excerpt

Chapter One

Meet a Totally Wired Teen

A Day in the Life of a Totally Wired Teen

Many of us remember watching the space-age cartoon The Jetsons and collectively dreaming about what the future would look like. While today’s teens are not driving flying cars (yet) or studying cyborg biology and astromathematics, they would probably relate well to Judy, the Jetsons’ teenage daughter.

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