Growing up in the latter half of the 90s, I experienced a childhood with minimal technology and I progressively gained more access as we moved into the 2000s. I got to witness and experience the changes within the school system that began the introduction of new age technology into the classroom as well. We went from chalk boards, to dry erase boards, to clicker technology that went with updated projectors, to the latest, smart boards. Each generation is more and more connected to technology; it is up to the individual if that will be a good thing or a bad thing. I chose to read and do my report on It’s Complicated: the social lives of networked teens, by Danah Boyd, because I felt that she gave perspective on technology use in young people that exclaimed all of my thoughts, from my teen years. Being that I am in my early-mid-twenties, my teenage years aren’t that far from me, so it made it easy to connect with the text.

            After doing some research, I learned that Boyd is a Fellow at Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society, a principal researcher at Microsoft, and an assistant professor at NYU. Reading this text and looking at the titles of some of her other works such as: Taken out of context: American teen sociality in networked publics and Enhancing Child Safety and Online Technologies, it showed that she has a passion for young adults and children and their use of technology. 

            In the opening of chapter 1, Boyd walks us through the story of a young man that was trying to get into an Ivy League institution and the admissions counselors googled who he was and came across some old posts that were gang related and had many negative connotations, by society’s standards. The admissions counselors questioned why the candidate didn’t mention this aspect of his life if it is so easy to discover anything about a person in this age of technology and the internet. Boyd gave perspective and challenged them with the statement, “perhaps this young man is simply including gang signals on his MySpace profile as a survival technique (p.29). 

            This chapter further explained teenagers and their online identities. It took me back to my own teenage years and how I didn’t always think about how a post on social media could be perceived in the long run. I’ve seen situations like the young man Boyd described happen for school and for jobs and it ended with unfortunate results such as not being accepted or being denied the job. Danah came to realize that, taken out of context, what teens appear to do and say on social media seems peculiar if not outright problematic. The intended audience matters, regardless of the actual audience (p.30). Adults and people from other generations tend to perceive the things teens do online the wrong way. We aren’t the same age, nor do we have the same experience and knowledge, so we don’t think about things the same way as teens. This text challenges so many of the ideologies surrounding teens and technology.

            More specifically Boyd covered “how and why social media has become central to the lives of so many American teens and how they navigate the networked publics that are created through those technologies” (p. 5). Boyd used research and interviews from teens that explained their relationships with social media. Her findings further highlighted the need for things to not be taken out of context. The teens explained why they do the things that they do involving technology and social media and it doesn’t support the claims that adults have made. I believe that the answer Boyd was trying to prove is that the many claims of adults regarding teens have little proven foundation to rest on.

            Although there were many claims by adults that were addressed in the text, I found that Boyd never actually gave any support to those claims. Not to say that there aren’t any, but her angle was more from the teens side and giving foundation for their actions and why they do the things they do. The matter of not taking things out of context surfaced again in the discussion. Social steganography uses countless linguistic and cultural tools, including lyrics, in-jokes, and culturally specific references to encode messages that are functionally accessible but simultaneously meaningless (p.66). A lot of what teens do has no deep meaning and they are doing it to stay hip and a part of the in crowd.

            After all of this time, it is being proven that teens are simply just being misunderstood. As she closes the book, Boyd encourages adults that “rather than resisting technology or fearing what might happen if youth embrace social media, they should help youth develop the skills and perspective to productively navigate the complications brought about by living in networked publics. Collaboratively, adults and youth can help create a networked world that we all want to live in (p.213). 

            Boyd teaches us so much about perception and how everything is not as it seems, through this text. Technology is not going anywhere, if anything society is going to become even more saturated with it. If we do not begin to accept technology for what it is, we will ultimately get left behind while everyone else advances. This book was a great read and parents with teens or adults that work with them should definitely invest in it. 

BY: Amesha Arnold

Brands have a responsibility to create an identity for themselves that separates them from everyone else. When you think of different organizations, there are certain ones that you can almost instantly identify due to certain catch phrases, slogans, and structures of their organization’s campaigns. Organizations know how vital the identity of their brand is and they focus on a variety of things/areas to ensure that they can stand the tests of time and have longevity.

The success of companies lies mostly in the hands of consumers due to the experience- based economy that we live in. Solis says “the future of influence lies in experience”(Solis, 2013) this is just saying that an organization level of influence in years to come will based on consumers’ experiences presently. The Top 10 Best Practices for Communicating Organizational Identity and Brand due to the experience-based economy, there are a few areas that I believe are the most important for organizational identity will be listed in this post.

Companies like Nike, Chegg, and Amazon have done well with creating a brand identity. Each of these companies fulfill each component that I listed previously. They all provide a level of convenience and a quality standard for their organizations to reach their consumers.

When you look at organizational identity and brand, you must ask questions like: “Who are they?” “Who do they want to be?” “Who do they have the potential to become?”.

1. being shareable

Social media has created the ability for experiences to be shared across one’s friends, family, and extended networks (Solis, 2013). Today, everything is able to be shared almost instantly due to the high activity and usage of social media outlets. In this day and age, millennials love to share their opinions about the issues that are currently taking place in society as well as give their inputs on things that they like or do not like about various matters. 

2. story telling

             Another component that plays into an organizations identity is their ability to tell a story. With storytelling comes creativity. A brand that has effectively mastered the art of storytelling is Nike. When you think about their campaigns from over the years, they always have a really emotional and relatable story that is being told by a well-known celebrity or athlete. They use these stories throughout their posts on social media and in their commercials and that allows for their consumers to see it repeatedly and connect with it.

3. being current and up to date

            An organizations shareability allows them to compete with other organizations in real time. Solis says “you are competing in real time at the right time (Solis, 2013). The use of social media mediums has heightened organizations abilities to get immediate feedback from those that are using their brands and even those who do not. Shareability gives consumers and potential consumers the opportunity to become even more familiarized with specific brands and organizations. If organizations utilize it correctly, they can grow their brands a lot faster than leaders of the past.

4. being personable

Brands and organizations personability can be displayed in the quality of their customer service. “Customer Service” has become such a business-world mantra that the idea of customer-centricity is easy to misunderstand (Yohn, 2014). Almost every organization puts a lot of time and effort into developing a customer service department that is effective. Although all organizations have not been successful in the area of customer service, it is still an element of most brands/ organizations. 

Some brands have realized that no matter how a company pursues its research in segmenting and targeting, the most effective customer strategies are those that integrate the company’s brand identity and engage the brand-as-business approach (Yohn, 2014). It is not always the best idea to try and market and get everyone to like your organization because by doing so you take away from those people that really could be making a major impact on your brand if you spent more time marketing to them. The managers of great brands put their brands at the center of their customer strategies because that’s how they shape expectations and invite like-minded people to engage with them (Yohn, 2014). 

5. being easily accessible

Brands like Fashion Nova, Pretty Little Thing, and Amazon have created a lane for consumers to have easy access to the things they like. Sites like these provide a convenience for the consumers that are extremely busy and may not want to actually have to go in-store to purchase items that they want or need. 

Many organizations are beginning to see the advantage of providing their consumers with this level of convenience. Grocery stores have even started giving their shoppers the opportunity to order their groceries online and have them delivered, or available for pick-up, so that they don’t have to spend that valuable time in the store. Many people are money driven and they would rather spend more of their time making money. Value has a numerator and a denominator (VanAuken, 2015). In the numerator are all of a brand’s benefits —- functional, emotional, experiential and self-expressive together with shared values (VanAuken, 2015). In the denominator is how much time, money and perceived effort it takes to purchase and use the brand (VanAuken, 2015).

In addition to those three components coming in places 4-10 are providing consistency, impeccable quality of service, producing good product, create a compelling narrative, being respectful to consumers, be engaging, be adaptable.

6. consistency

Brands must be consistent in their work. Becoming dependable help to create an environment that consumers will want to come to. Nobody likes to do business with a brand/ organization that is inconsistent. Consumers want to be able to get what they need all the time or majority of the time, at least.

7. Adaptability

People are going to change, over time. Organizations have to be able to change with their consumers and re-invent themselves as the time goes by. So many brands have gone out of business due to lack of adaptability. ex: Toys R Us.

8. being engaging

Beyond social media, brands and organizations need to get out in the community and actually be hands on with their consumers. They can set up shops/ tables in convenient places to gain visibility for their brands and also get to see exactly what people want.

9. authenticity

Consumers can tell when and organization or brand is being genuine. Brands need to be upfront and honest about what they do and plan to do so that they can attract the proper crowds. Would you rather be authentic and attract YOUR respective audience or be fake and end up later revealing the truth and losing the people you gained off of lies?

9. Be kind to consumers

All consumers want to be respected. Organizations must do their part to provide their customers with quality service and kindness. Being kind to consumers will give them a good opinion about your organization and they will share their experience and you can gain new customers through word of mouth.

References

Solis, B. (2013). What’s the future of business: Changing the way businesses create experience. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley

Yohn, D.L. (2014). What Great Brands Do: The seven branding principles the separate the best from the rest. San Francisco: Jossey- Bass.

VanAuken, B. (2015). How Brand Accessibility Builds Strong Brands. Retrieved from https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.brandingstrategyinsider.com/2015/09/how-brand-accessibility-builds-strong-brands.html/amp

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton