The story of Sabrina in chapter four of danah boyd’s book stood out compared to the other juveniles’ stories, particularly because she had the fear of predators and online dangers in common with all the parents mentioned in the chapter, while essentially all the other kids had no such fear, but rather fear of their parents’ worrying. It seems that influence from the media played a large role in this household, especially media covering the negative aspects of the Internet and social-networking sites. In the same chapter, boyd mentions a campaign that suggests that predators are entering households through computer monitors, although it seems that the intrusion of these predators is less likely than the intrusion of unwarranted fear caused by the media with regards to online dangers. The dangers caused by this media-persuading fear seem to be more serious than the actual predators hidden behind this fear; families are living behind closed doors, and from what danah boyd noticed, many kids are prevented from playing outside or interacting with others (online or offline) because of the fear of uncertainty.
The role of media in Sabrina and her families’ life reminds me of how media affected my life as I was growing up. Seeing that I was born in 1994 and I have spent most of my life in a post-9/11 world, the dangers of terrorism has been quite prevalent in the media especially in my early adolescent years. As a kid, the news seemed to always revolve around stories on terrorism or the war in Iraq, even to the point that I vividly remember one night, maybe when I was about nine years old, lying in my bed trying to fall asleep, yet unable to because of how scared I was that there would be a terrorist attack where I lived or near where I lived. Although, looking back at this fear, this seems completely irrational, it was very real in my mind due to the way media built up the threat of terrorism. In this light, I see that the problem and fear of online predators is not perpetuated by the danger, but rather by the media and how the media portrays this danger. The real danger is how intrusive the media can be within our households.
I definitely agree with you and would go even further to say that after 9/11, American media took note of how successful and effective creating a culture of fear was in general. Both fear about impending attacks & moral panic about the degradation of American life from within. As this class has shown, this panic seems to be focusing on technology, and what’s interesting to see now is how mass media is focusing on IS’s use of social media to garner new recruits. Is this the beginning of a new type of moral panic?