From one old fogey to another

Dana,

Your title is a bit misleading. Your analysis isn’t based on your old fogey status, but on the way Andrew’s piece was used by others in ways that were clearly inappropriate and much wider than his own express statements would justify. I think Andrew was both upfront & absolutely clear that he was expressing a uniquely personal view. And his demographic details told us that he’s a white, privileged upper class teen. I enjoyed his insights but I wouldn’t ever generalize his opinions any more than I would those of my own white, privileged, teenage son. He’s clearly more tech-savvy than many of his peers and it’s perhaps no wonder that readers would try to use his personal experiences to justify their own perceptions about what’s happening with social media. At the same time, thanks for pointing out the obvious limits of his observations and the insights that you’ve got about how class & race distinctions will inevitably weigh heavily on social media use. It’s unfortunate that people seem to want easy, simple answers to things that really can’t be easily quantified, summed-up & fed to the masses.