This week’s reading, a chapter from Danah Boyd’s book titled ‘It’s Complicated’, discusses the sort of relationship teenagers and privacy share. As the chapter extensively deliberates teenagers’ use of social media, I became additionally interested whilst reading, in how adolescents turn to specific forms of online networks in order to grapple with their privacy.

For example, teens may occasionally use platforms like Facebook and Instagram to share information publicly, knowing that their parents, teachers and friends are able to see it. However, sometimes this variety of social media is used to intentionally provoke drama, due to the fact that some teens post what are seemingly harmless, public statuses not directed at anyone, yet they target specific individuals and raise personal issues online. Unfortunately, for teenagers who may not realise in the moment, this sort of online spectacle can later cause regret when it results in backlash within their real lives.

However, when it comes to more personal interactions online, many teens prefer to adopt modes like Snapchat – arguably because it challenges the notion that anything put on the internet is permanent. When Snapchat originally emerged on the scene in 2011, it differentiated from other modes by impermanent content and messaging, and in 2015, it was even outpacing Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

All media uploaded on Snapchat can only be seen for a certain amount of time that the user sets – the maximum being 10 seconds long. After that, they are auto-deleted and can never be seen again. Users can send silly and embarrassing photos and videos of themselves without having to worry about long term consequences. They also receive a notification when their friends take screenshots of their snaps, tracking those who grab their content.

This ephemeral aspect of the social media app gives any communications shared upon it a certain aloofness that is generally understood by teenagers. Nothing is taken too seriously, unlike a very public, concrete and sometimes controversial Facebook post.

There’s a reason Snapchat is incredibly popular among youth whilst adults have a difficult time finding similar-aged people who use the app. As discussed by Boyd in the chapter, the general mass of people completely disregard any information suggesting that teenagers do regard their privacy, which is hardly the case, though many choose not to believe it. Many adults may care more obviously about privacy, teenagers just have a different way of caring about theirs and putting it into practice. 

Snapchat, therefore, is one of the ways in which teens attempt to gain some privacy, away from prying parental eyes and the patent, resolute structure of networks like Facebook.