Week 9: Watkins

            In the chapter, The very well connected: Friending, bonding, and community in the digital age, S. Craig Watkins, writes about the interaction between students and social media and how it affects relationships. Watkins explains how critics believe that the Web is altering the kinds of relationships youth are having with each other, while he believes that the only thing evolving is the way that youth are interacting with each other. Today, teens are constantly looking down at their technology devices rather than paying attention to the outside world, which many people argue will cause youth to become slaves to that technology. Watkins argues that technology allows one to be social in different ways. Young people use the web to maintain friendships with individuals that they may otherwise lose touch with and possibly even make weak ties with friends stronger. Watkins makes a connection to the invention of the telephone. The telephone shaped communication and social relationships when it was first invented, just as the Internet is shaping those aspects of life now. Watkins also believes that the Internet allows for communication between individuals that otherwise would never have taken place.

            I believe that the points that Watkins’ makes are accurate, for the most part. From my own personal experience with social media, I have been able to keep in touch with my high school friends who are all at different colleges. When I go home for Thanksgiving, seeing them will be much easier because I have seen so many new pictures of them on Facebook, so I know that they are all enjoying college and I feel as if I never really left them. At one point, Watkins brings up counterargument, “And so, today’s new communication technologies join a long line of innovation that presumably make staying connected more difficult” (52). I disagree with this statement because I believe that staying connected is much easier with the creation of social media. I can message any of my friends at any time of the day, no matter where they are or what they are doing. I do agree with the fact that conversations are now fast, and simple. We can now check in on people without having the added pressure of maintaining a face-to-face conversation.  

            Watkins received his PhD at the University of Michigan and is currently a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written three books on youth culture and is a media professional who studies the interactions between the digital society and the culture of youths. He has also studied Hip Hop in African American communities, and the relationship between gaming and race, culture, and education. Watkins’ educational background ties in with the different social medias and their specific users. In CA346 we discussed Digital White Flight, which was the migration of white, suburban kids from MySpace to Facebook. Historically, there was often an association with race and the different social media sites, such as Facebook and MySpace. This is not so much the case now.