Meeting of the Minds: Youth, Social Media, and Education

By Shauntee Burns
July 15, 2010
Cinnamon Madrepore; Muricated Madrepore; Mushroom Madrepore; Gorgonia Cerebrum or Brain Madrepore., Digital ID T000843, New York Public Library

Monday, June 21, 2010 HomeworkNYC presented “Meeting of the Minds: Youth, Social Media, and Education” a panel discussion with guest speaker danah boyd.

Dr. boyd is a researcher at Microsoft Research and a fellow at Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society. Her research investigates everyday practices involving social media, with specific attention to youth engagement. She recently co-authored Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out: Kids Living and Learning with New Media. She is currently co-directing the Youth and Media Policy Working Group, funded by the MacArthur Foundation. She blogs at zephoria.org/thoughts and she is on Twitter @zephoria.

As an audience member and a user of social media, I found the presentation interesting and insightful. So many questions were answered:

  • Why do teens really use social networking?
  • Myspace vs. Facebook?
  • Do teens use twitter?
  • Who is looking online?

So, I’m sure you are reading this wondering, “okay, great program, why write a blog about it?” I wrote this blog because of the overwhelming responses from this event. I figured I should keep the conversation going, create a forum for questions, and hopefully move us all in the same direction.

If you missed the discussion, watch the video here: Meeting of the Minds: Youth, Social Media, and Education.

A handout with everyone's bio information is available at the bottom of the page.

Message from danah boyd:
Thanks so much for a fun day! Let me share some links that might be useful for folks:

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