Summary of American Girls: by Nancy Jo Sales | Includes Analysis

By Instaread Summaries

Summary of American Girls by Nancy Jo Sales | Includes Analysis

 

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American Girls, by journalist Nancy Jo Sales, is the result of a two-and-a-half-year investigation into how social media is shaping the development of girls in America today and, by e

• Language: English
• Publisher: Instaread, Inc
• Release date: May 11, 2016
• ISBN: 9781683780809

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Overview

American Girls, by journalist Nancy Jo Sales, is the result of a two-and-a-half-year investigation into how social media is shaping the development of girls in America today and, by extension, what this means for fostering self-esteem and self-respect. Sales interviewed more than 200 subjects, girls ranging from 13 to 19 years old, querying them on the new social norms that have been set by the explosion of social media over the last five years and how this plays out in their daily lives. Sales traveled to ten states across the country and spoke to girls from diverse racial, ethnic, and economic backgrounds. She discovered that the effects of social media on girls of all strata are startlingly similar: the steady stream of online interactions has drastically changed the way girls conduct and, more importantly, conceive of and value themselves, often to damaging effects.

Girls coming of age have long had to contend with questions of conformity, popularity, self-esteem, and competition. Yet the recent proliferation of social media applications, including Yik Yak, Facebook, and Ask.fm, has amplified these difficulties by desensitizing current users, boys included, to blatant sexism, misogyny, and sexual objectification. Girls feel pressured to post sexy, skin-baring selfies and have become numb to text requests from male peers for nude pictures, which could easily end up on