[Air-l] teens and myspace

[Thiel, Shayla]

Hi, all. I'm usually a lurker here, but...

Another helpful resource on adolescents/identity/new media that I think
could help contextualize what has been happening with MySpace, Facebook,
and other social networking sites is a book that was published last year
on Peter Lang titled "Girl Wide Web: Girls, the Internet, and the
Negotiation of Identity" (Intersections in Communications and Culture:
Global Approaches and Transdisciplinary Perspectives), edited by Sharon
R. Mazzarella.  

And it's a shameless plug, but I also have a book coming out in the late
summer/early fall about adolescent girls, gender identity and Instant
Messaging that I think incorporates a lot of the subject matter that has
been discussed here this week (and a section on the significance of
social networking sites in terms of identity and the commodification of
online communication in the youth culture). It's also on Peter Lang and
will be called "Instant Identity." It's based on ethnographic research
I've done with adolescent girls using IM over the past several years.

Shayla Thiel, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor, Communication Department
DePaul University
2320 North Kenmore Avenue (576 SAC)
Chicago, Illinois 60614 
773-325-7659
sthiel1 at depaul.edu