American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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I have an interesting relationship with this material as an asexual woman who felt pressured to have sex as a teen. I agree with the critique that this book is disorganized, but I agree with her main conclusion that the ubiquity of porn is a major problem in teenage heterosexual relationships. In what world is it ok for a 13 yo to ask for nudes or a college student to “tap out” with friends on drunk girls. 🤦🏻‍♀️

Also, my bookmarks arrived! 🥳

MicheleinPhilly I‘m sorry but your last sentence made me LOL. Talk about whiplash! 5y

Megabooks @MicheleinPhilly Lol!! Just trying to consolidate my posts! 🤣 Also I have to get two crowns on my teeth Tuesday! 👑 5y

MicheleinPhilly Well that sounds like fun. 5y

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SW-T I read an article a while back about how teens think that if they‘re not reacting like a porn show actor/actress they think something‘s wrong. And congrats on the bookmarks! Hope the crowns go well. Dentistry is necessary but rarely “fun”. 5y

Scochrane26 When I worked w/ juvenile sex offenders years ago, we threw away the Sunday paper bra ads because they could be used as porn. Porn was a contributing factor in a lot of the offenses—a trigger. 5y

Megabooks @MicheleinPhilly So excited. 🙄 5y

Megabooks @SW-T Yes! Some of the 19 year old girls were very conflicted about that. The guys actually thought they would orgasm like porn stars. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I‘m definitely not excited about the crowns, but I am excited to get my broken tooth fixed because it‘s cutting my tongue! Ouch! 5y

Megabooks @Scochrane26 Definitely! The boys were talking about watching hardcore things in 5th and 6th grade. Waaaayyy too young. They also addressed sexy Instagram shots. I had a friend that was a social worker with those offenders and talked about how they would try to see her bra even though she dressed conservatively. 5y

SW-T That broken tooth sounds miserable! Glad your appointment isn‘t too far off! 5y

Megabooks @SW-T Thanks! I go to the senior dentist in the practice and he‘s half retired, so that‘s why I have to wait even that long, but he‘s much faster than his daughter and son-in-law and I have severe TMJ and a small mouth! 5y

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Megabooks

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

I just really wanted to listen to Therese Plummer‘s voice. The book is just okay. Any other audiobook lovers feel that way?

70 likes

gradcat

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

1. Tagged book made me mad for oh! So many reasons—too numerous to go into here, but I did review it on Litsy. 📚
2. Seinfeld, hands down—there‘ll never be another like it! 📺
3. Coffee—I don‘t eat breakfast, but I definitely eat typical breakfast foods for lunch/dinner. 🍳
4. CDT ☀️ 🕰
5. Blue Ruins

* Nice #FriyayIntro Jessica!

@Crazeedi @EadieB

howjessicareads

Leftcoastzen There is a Seinfeld episode for nearly all things in life. 5y

AmyG #2 absolutely agree 5y

gradcat @Leftcoastzen So true! I couldn‘t have said it any better than just the way you put it...right, @AmyG ? (edited) 5y

62 likes3 comments

gradcat

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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#Booked2019 (Spring—Social Media Focus)

While I wouldn‘t recommend this book (unless you‘re a helicopter parent with a lot of time on your hands), I did learn a lot from it (thot, thighbrow, finsta, OTP, anyone?). Seriously, though, the book is long on anecdote and short on analysis, so that the reader gets quite bogged down in the pages & pages of interviews, which are often repetitive, and to my mind, not reflective of society. Most of Sales‘⬇️

Cinfhen, BarbaraTheBibliophage, alisiakae

gradcat ⬆️ interviewees (with, literally, a handful of exceptions) are white, upper-class girls with both parents living at home. Plus, it‘s hard to believe that all teenagers are carrying on in this way (sending nudes, having random sex, watching porn constantly). So much of this stuff makes me sorry for girls today, but not shocked. I‘m no innocent, and I taught school until a few years ago. But I am sorry. Some things haven‘t changed since I was a ⬇️ (edited) 6y

gradcat ⬆️ girl (slut-shaming, whore/virgin dichotomy, guys‘ fear of female intelligence), but in other ways, these girls are quite a bit more sophisticated, and thus I have hopes for continued progress. This book was written pre-#metoo (even though that movement mostly applies to women in the workplace), so maybe things will get better (and louder) in the feminist public square, and young girls will not feel forced to do anything they don‘t want to do. 6y

Cinfhen Great review. I worry for young girls today 🙁 6y

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gradcat @Cinfhen That book would defo make you worry! Thanks for commenting!! And for emailing! ♥️ 6y

alisiakae I often find books like this to be short on analysis, which is frustrating. Great review! 6y

gradcat @4thhouseontheleft Thanks for commenting...kind of silly that I wrote such a long review for that kind of frustrating book, isn‘t it? 😂 6y

alisiakae No, not at all! I think some of my longest reviews are for books I don‘t like. And as a parent of a girl heading to middle school next year, your review was helpful! 6y

gradcat @4thhouseontheleft Thank you 😉 6y

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gradcat

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

1. Bewitched 📺
2. To move to the UK 🇬🇧
3. I‘m sort of following the prompts from #Booked2019 + the odd book that I just have to read RIGHT THIS INSTANT! 📖
4. Salman Rushdie‘s “The Satanic Verses.” It arrived with such baggage, that I figured it would be a big letdown. It wasn‘t. And Rushdie has never let me down since. 📚
5. Do you live in your hometown? Or did you leave, vowing never, ever to return?
@Crazeedi @EadieB
#FriyayIntro

howjessicareads

Velvetfur I don't live in my home town, but am planning to return, and then I'll probably be off again a few years after that, as I so often have done 😂 6y

Velvetfur Oh and I know exactly what you mean about when you just have to read it right now! I'm like that when I finally find a book that I'd wanted for ages and it was hard to find, is it like that for you too? 6y

Addison_Reads I left my hometown and try to only return a few times a year to see family. I loved growing up in a small town, but I have no desire to move back there. 6y

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Nessavamusic I left my hometown and so did all of my family so I never get back 6y

TheSpineView It's been years since I made it back to my home town. All the family has moved away so no reason to go. 6y

TheLibrarian I left but go back to visit family. My hometown kinda sucks so I wouldn‘t want to live there again. 6y

Crazeedi Thanks for tag! I left my hometown at 17, then came back to a town 1/2 hr from where I grew up. 6y

CouronneDhiver It‘s planning a move to UK in a few years too. 👍🏽 6y

gradcat @Velvetfur Or when something new comes out, and all of the sudden everyone is raving about it—yes! I, too, moved home and away, home and away, & home and away....guess there‘s always something that pulls you back like gravity pulls you down! 😂 6y

AsYouWish Yes I live in my hometown. 6y

gradcat @CouronneDhiver Really! Wow...I don‘t know anyone else who is doing that...I‘m excited to know someone else with the same interest in the UK that I have...we‘ll have to get together over there...😂😂😂 6y

gradcat @Addison_Reads @Nessavamusic @TheSpineView @TheLibrarian @Crazeedi @AsYouWish I‘ve moved away so many times, only to return. Now I‘m back since (before) my father died, living with my mom (my best friend). But the weather kills me, so we‘re moving as soon as we can get it together. I need low humidity & cool weather & four seasons (not asking for much, am I?)! 😂😂😂 6y

Velvetfur @gradcat I like your comparison with gravity, that's cool and makes sense to 😁 6y

paulfrankspencer Still in PGH, PA... too much family to justify leaving without a very good reason. 6y

xxjenadanxx I don‘t feel like I have a hometown, although the town I live in now feels like home. 6y

Megabooks Left for 20 years, back now, so both! 6y

gradcat @Velvetfur Thank you...you are the nicest person...you must have loads of people around who love you...at least, to me it seems that way. Hope you are doing well. 🥰❤️😊 6y

gradcat @paulfrankspencer If I lived in Pittsburgh (is that PGH?), I would stay, too. It seems like a nice city with a lot to offer its residents. 👍 6y

gradcat @Megabooks You sound like me...but I want to leave again!! 😂😂 6y

gradcat @xxjenadanxx Where are you making your home at the moment? 6y

paulfrankspencer @gradcat that's right. It's really improved in my lifetime I would say. Great place to live or visit. 6y

Velvetfur @gradcat Aaww thank you Minette! Nah everyone I'm close to lives far away from me, although I have a close friend kinda nearby and I've finally made a good friend in this city after living here for two years, ha! 6y

tracey38 I've moved away a few times but have kept coming back. 6y

gradcat @tracey38 Seem to be a lot of us doing that same thing! 😂 6y

gradcat @Velvetfur Good for you! Sometimes it just takes time. 🥰 6y

gradcat @paulfrankspencer I was last there in the early 90s... I bet it‘s changed loads since then! 6y

xxjenadanxx @gradcat Pensacola, Florida. My favorite place I‘ve lived! 6y

gradcat @xxjenadanxx Pensacola was Spring Break destination number 1 for me back in high school! I loved it and I thought it was very beautiful & temperate climate-wise. I wouldn‘t know what it‘s like during the off-season, though...but I‘m glad you like it! 👍 6y

65 likes28 comments

msubhasi76

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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Eye opening.

1 like

Megabooks

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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It has to be hard to raise a teenage girl. This book shines a light on the stress social media places on girls 13-19. I just can‘t believe how much has changed in the 20 years since I was a teen.

She has a chapter for each age, and in each chapter she focuses on a particular problem. For example at age 13, she devoted space to sending nude photos. At 18, it was girls who were checking out of social media.

Very fascinating. 4.5⭐️ #nonfiction2018

Riveted_Reader_Melissa

CouronneDhiver Crazy! 😐 6y

merelybookish I have a 12 year-old girl. 😬 6y

Riveted_Reader_Melissa This one has been on my to read list for awhile, just an interesting and really scary in many ways subject 6y

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Zelma I am soooooo glad social media didn‘t exist when I was a teenager or in college. I shudder to think what I would have posted or been tagged in. 😬 6y

Megabooks @CouronneDhiver It was!! 6y

Megabooks @merelybookish I‘m not a parent, but she makes some good points about things girls are exposed to and challenges they face in middle and high school and on into college. May be worth a read. 6y

Megabooks @Riveted_Reader_Melissa It is scary! Young girls are so sexualized these days. It‘s s real eye opener! 6y

Megabooks @Zelma Right?!? It just seems so much more scary now! 6y

MelissaS I‘m a mom of boys and want to read this to see how I can assure that they don‘t feed the monsters these girls deal with! 6y

Megabooks @MelissaS There is definitely some attention paid to boys in this book. I hope you find it helpful. 6y

SandyW Sounds intriguing, and will probably add to my pile of reasons why I'm glad I'm not a parent! 6y

CampbellTaraL Boy do I need this book. 15 year old daughter is intense to navigate around. I seriously have no idea if I'm doing anything right. Adding this to the TBR 6y

Megabooks @SandyW Tell me about it! It‘s something I don‘t plan on doing! 6y

Megabooks @taraWritesSci Good luck! I have a lot of respect for parents of teens. I hope you find it helpful! 6y

Chrissyreadit The pressure of social media on teens has been exhausting- but on the other hand the outreach and support with social justice has been amazing. My daughter has had some outstanding social media interactions as well as some terrible ones. How do we help them balance? 6y

Megabooks @Chrissyreadit Yes, she talked about how it has been powerful in connecting people for good. She interviewed a girl active in the Black Lives Matter movement. But for every one of those, there‘s at least a couple of dick pics or unsolicited, unwanted attention or harassment. That‘s just really unfortunate. 6y

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MelanieMefford

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

If you have a pre/teen daughter, this is a must read. I'm taking mine into the deep woods without internet access. It's disturbing. 😞😳

6 likes

ceathorne

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

"What do we mean when we talk about the culture of social media? I think it's important to talk about it, because, for most American girls, social media is where they live."

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Darthdad

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

The most frightening book I saw in the library today. My daughter will be 13 next year!

Riveted_Reader_Melissa I have this one on hold at the library. It can't be worse than what I learned in Girls & Sex, right?

Girls & Sex: Navigating the Complicated New Landscape

britt_brooke 😂😳 8y

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KatyAliceReads

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

bailed

I bailed on this book for two reasons.
1. It turns out I'm not a fan of Nancy Jo Sales authorial voice (a little wandery and second-wave judgmental)
2. This one is shockingly similar to Peggy Orenstein's 'Girls & Sex' which I read two weeks ago, only it lacks the clarity and structure.

I may come back to it someday... But for now life's too short.

10 likes

KatyAliceReads

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

So inspiring...

Megabooks Lol (not really) 😱😱😱 8y

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KatyAliceReads

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

This is what future historians/alien invaders will ask someday...

OSChamberlain I'm crying 😂😂😂 8y

Well-ReadNeck I'm asking that now‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ 8y

QuoteQueen Bahahahaha 8y

CharissaWeaksAuthor BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA 😂😂😂😂 8y

Megabooks Definitely!! 8y

14 likes5 comments

KatyAliceReads

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

This reading list keeps delivering heavy blows to my soul...

11 likes

DrewRomero

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

pick

This was a fascinating read and a frightening insight into the world of young girls having to grow up in a social media-saturated culture. I would recommend this book to parents with girls at home, and for young women. It will make you think twice before you purchase a smart phone, or give permission for unfettered social media access. Easy-read and engrossing subject!

5 likes

DrewRomero

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

"Social media has given parenting a whole new dimension, and it has provided a publishing tool for parenting as performance."

MrBook Used to live next to Upper Montclair. 😊 8y

BookBabe And I've spent many of my waking days there. @MrBook 8y

7 likes2 comments

DrewRomero

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

Americans and technology at their worst. Ugh. How are my girls ever supposed to have a chance?

BookBabe Yikes. 😳 8y

8 likes1 comment

DrewRomero

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

I just love deckle-edged books. I know some might find it annoying - but I'm crazy about them!

BookBabe Me too! 😊 8y

5 likes1 comment

DrewRomero

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

Okay. Cracking the book in this one! It looks terribly, frighteningly interesting.

5 likes

RachelWeber

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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HBug-Allen

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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I learned so much from this book! Is my generation that different from the current social media obsessed generation? Yes, no, maybe? You read and decide. Either way, I guarantee you'll learn the new meaning of thirsty.

1 like

MaryAnn1

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

I am the mother of a tween. I'm preparing myself for the teenage years. I'll never be completely ready.

Louise Courage, MaryAnn! Courage! 💕 8y

Beckys_Books I have a 16 yr old daughter and now know why some animals in the wild eat their young. 8y

Sue @Beckys_Books Lol!! My daughter is nearly 14 and so far so good - still more interested in tea and books than boys. I'm sure the day will come though. 8y

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SusanInTiburon I got through my teens' years by remembering them as toddlers. Same struggles: so much they're trying to master, so much to say, but still lacking skills and language to do it all. Same solutions: respect for their struggles, unconditional love, and plenty of mac and cheese. 💖💖 8y

Vanessa My little one is eight. My commands to stop growing go largely ignored, so I cuddle her as much as I can and try not to worry about the years ahead. 😬 8y

MaryAnn1 @Vanessa I'm right there with ya. In a perfect world my son would be perpetually 5 and my daughter 4. 😕 8y

queerbookreader I just got out of my teens, officially. The best thing you can do for your teen daughter is to know when to be a mom, when to be a friend, and when to let her do her own thing &make her own mistakes. Don't yell at her too much. Hug her often. Don't just tell her you support her--show w your actions. 8y

MaryAnn1 @lemonlime799, you are so wise. Thanks for the reminder. I so want to do everything right for her. 8y

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alimarks

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

Memorial Day weekend-ing with the guys.

Ktop

4 likes

HBug-Allen

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

I'm enjoying this book immensely. A lot of thought provoking and timely topics.

HBug-Allen

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

When a person asks you to "SEND NOODZ", does that mean they think you're attractive?

alimarks

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

Just finished the Price of Salt and started my new book only to find...

1 like

alimarks

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

This culture of scarcity shit freaks me the fuck out. And I do an awful job of modeling body positivity and the "enough" mindset for my freshmen girls. Sigh. #teacherproblems #fuckedupagain

HBug-Allen At least you're trying, buddy. I am sure you are reaching out to more young girls than you think. I admire your work! 😘 9y

2 likes1 comment

lowellette

American Girls: Social Media and the Secret Lives of Teenagers | Nancy Jo Sales

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While this isn't shocking, I haven't considered how complicated it is for teens to navigate their social world with social media. Catfishing, nude requests from boys, trust issues, constant body comparisons, & cyber bullying are discussed. This esp does not paint American boys in a good light.

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