What if Social Media Were Good for Tween Girls?

Under the Influence with Jo Piazza

Jo Piazza, Influence Inc.

Society & Culture, Parenting, Kids & Family, Personal Journals, Technology

4.3 • 787 Ratings

🗓️ 18 March 2025

⏱️ 68 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Professor Katherine Phelps is shattering the stereotype that social media is purely destructive for young girls. After spending a ton of time with these young women and interviewing them about their online habits for her new book Digital Girlhoods she's discovered that social media plays a valuable role in community building and identity formation. Katherine discusses the complex dynamics of online bullying, privacy, and visibility, as well as the broader societal influences that shape young girls' digital lives. Maybe it isn't social media that is failing girls, but our society, our culture and even us. Get Digital Girlhoods here. Join our newsletter community here. Pre-order EVERYONE IS LYING TO YOU here. Visit our lovely sponsors here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:04.9	Hello everyone. Joe here and you're listening to Under the Influence.
1:12.3	We've talked a lot on this show about how damaging social media can be for teen and tween girls.
1:20.1	But what if that's not entirely true? What if instead of being entirely destructive, social media could actually provide value and
1:29.0	community, particularly for tween girls? Professor Catherine Phelps has done in-depth
1:35.7	interviews with a cross-section of tweens, allowing them to explain in their own words what
1:40.9	social media means to them. Tween girls, like women everywhere, are not a monolith.
1:48.1	Social media is awesome for some of them, and it completely and totally sucks for others.
1:54.8	Could social media actually provide value for tween girls? Can it provide community? Can it provide belonging? A lot of this is such a
2:05.2	gray area. And the only way we can really explore it is to ask the tweens themselves. That's
2:11.2	exactly what Catherine's been doing for her new book, Digital Girlhoods. Because tween girls in America
2:17.0	grew up with social media, they've been
2:19.5	posting selfies since they could steal your phone. And while there's plenty of pitfalls and dangers
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