9781422273906

Think back: Can you remember the first time you used a digital device? Try to remember a moment when you were a person who had never used a smart phone, tablet, or computer. Can you do it? If you’re a high school student, you probably can’t. That’s because you are what’s known as a “digital native.” Digital natives are people who were born into an Internet-connected world. You don’t know any other way to live, because you’ve been around electronic devices since you were born. Your parents (maybe) and grandparents (definitely) are not digital natives—they were around before the Internet was part of our daily lives. That’s why they might seem a little clueless when it comes to using their phones. What seems entirely natural to you can be strange and even alienating to them. But while technology changes very fast—there are always new apps, new slang, and so on—human nature changes very slowly, if at all. We may have shiny new ways of communicating with each other, but we are still, at the end of the day, the same people, struggling with the same challenges, insecurities, and heartbreaks as previous generations. So the question is, how do we incorporate new technologies into our very human relationships? How can we interact with social media in ways that emphasize what’s good about it, while reducing negative effects? This book will try to take on these questions. It’s important to point out at the start that this book is not anti–social media. We are more connected, with more access

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