Customer Reviews

Instant Identity (Mediated Youth)

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This book offers readers a stronger understanding of how and why girls use instant messaging software (like AOL IM). In designing her study, Shayla Thiel Stern smartly found a group of adolescent girls who were willing to send her copies of their IM conversations. Stern's analysis of these conversations is solidly grounded with sound developmental and gender theory, and it is positioned in relation to useful background research on narratives and identity construction.

Stern's findings are clearly and compellingly written. Interestingly, some of her findings contradict current received wisdom about girls' relationships. For example, recent books like Odd Girl Out: The Hidden Culture of Aggression in Girls and Slut! Growing Up Female with a Bad Reputation have argued that girls' disagreements lead to subtle, non-overt, but insidious and cruelly hurtful "mean girl" behavior. Stern finds that on IM, however, girls are more open, directly confronting others about their grievances, breaking the "mean girl" stereotype. This is perhaps because IM users realize that their conversations can easily be copied and shared with others. Without guarantees that their words will be kept confidential, they come out and say what they really mean.

At the same time, Stern found that her informants enjoyed the privacy that IM conversations afforded them from non-IM users--a kind of privacy that everyday conversations lack. Prying parents and peers couldn't overhear their words, nor could they observe a conversation between two parties from across the room and leap to conclusions. Thus, although IM conversations may be copied and shared with others, because they are not publicly observable, they offer a respite for many girls as they build relationships with others.

The book also offers insights into how girls construct their sexuality through IM; the way companies are invading IM to market commodities to teenagers; and how IM is both a part of teens' social life and a new type of diary.

Anyone with an interest in girls, identity, and new media technology should consider reading Instant Identity: Adolescent Girls and the World of Instant Messaging (Mediated Youth). It would be an excellent inclusion in college-level courses on communications, youth media culture, or women's studies.