Chapter 2. The Scene

EXACTLY WHAT ARE TEENS doing on these sites? If you ask them, they'll most likely tell you they're "just hanging out."

Hanging out on MySpace and other social-networking sites is sort of like networking in the adult sense of the word, except that teens aren't reaching out to their extended network of friends with some purpose in mind, as we think of it. Instead, they're engaged in conveniently asynchronous but also real-time collective and interactive self-expression. Whewit's not easy being a teenager!

Let's take a look at what this self-expression is all about, from teens' and the experts' points of view.