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Behind Their Screens

What Teens are Facing (and Adults Are Missing)

Audiobook (Includes supplementary content)
2 of 2 copies available
2 of 2 copies available

How teens navigate a networked world and how adults can support them

What are teens actually doing on their smartphones? Contrary to many adults' assumptions, they are not simply "addicted" to their screens, oblivious to the afterlife of what they post, or missing out on personal connection. They are just trying to navigate a networked world. In Behind Their Screens, Emily Weinstein and Carrie James, Harvard researchers who are experts on teens and technology, explore the complexities that teens face in their digital lives, and suggest that many adult efforts to help—"Get off your phone!" "Just don't sext!"—fall short.

Weinstein and James warn against a single-minded focus by adults on "screen time." Teens worry about dependence on their devices, but disconnecting means being out of the loop socially, with absence perceived as rudeness or even a failure to be there for a struggling friend. Drawing on a multiyear project that surveyed more than 3,500 teens, the authors explain that young people need empathy not exasperated eye-rolling. Adults should understand the complicated nature of teens' online life rather than issue commands, and they should normalize—let teens know that their challenges are shared by others—without minimizing or dismissing. Along the way, Weinstein and James describe different kinds of sexting and explain such phenomena as watermarking nudes, comparison quicksand, digital pacifiers, and collecting receipts. Behind Their Screens offers essential listening for any adult who cares about supporting teens in an online world.

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    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 6, 2022
      Weinstein and James (Disconnected), researchers who have spent a decade studying teens’ digital lives at Harvard’s Project Zero, reveal the gaps between adults’ assumptions and what teens are actually up to in this fascinating deep dive into online behavior. The reality of “growing up digital,” they argue, is vastly different from the alarmist headlines; while there are apps “designed to hijack focus,” for instance, it’s a “mistake” to view being glued to one’s screen “as evidence that teens don’t care about connection.” Group chats, meanwhile, haven’t eroded “the age-old qualities that make or break friendships,” and sexting can be “consensual and wanted by both parties” or “pressured or even actively coerced,” which is important for parents to grasp so the issue is met with more understanding than just the reflexive instruction to not do it. The authors round things out with a call for “digital agency,” which can be established by “creating space for young people to explore true tensions and dilemmas” in classrooms and at home. The authors’ research is impressive, and the “Teens Want Adults to Know” sections at the end of each chapter add some nice perspective. Parents and educators losing sleep over what’s happening online would do well to give this a look.

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  • English

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