Snotgirl: Green Hair Don't Care Vol. 1 by Bryan Lee O'Malley and Leslie Hung

I find my books from a variety of sources. One of the places I lurk on for YA books is book riot where I read an article talking about how social media is a positive communication tool. Part of the article was a group of three recommendations. Snotgirl was one of the recommendations. I shared the article with my principal and as a result our media specialist ordered the books. Yay.

Snotgirl is a graphic novel about this completely insecure hot girl named Lottie. She's beautiful and self absorbed. She's a fashion blogger and she's recently broken up with her boyfriend of five years. She also suffers from ridiculously bad allergies (not attractive). So, her doctor puts her on a drug trial for a new allergy medicine. At this point, things get weird. It seems like the pills are causing memory gaps and screwing up her emotions. There are elements of the unreliable narrator here, and I finished volume one semi-convinced that Lottie is hallucinating some things.

The social media angle is pervasive. First, Lottie is a blogger which is a sort of social media but she is also constantly texting and tweeting. She updates Instagram constantly and she is constantly check the social media of others, including semi cyber stalking the girl that her ex-boyfriend is now dating. It's everywhere and the source of a lot of plot development. Mixed in is this weird conflict with identity. Lottie is the girl with the crazy bad allergies but she also her fashion perfect alter-ego for the blog. They are not similar to each other, but both real. It sounds weird but I've actually had students who struggle with this.

As a teacher, there's a lot of mixed feeling about social media. Eight years ago, or so, it was a lot of alarm about social media, so we are making progress. I think we, as a group, still aren't sure how to deal with it. It's like any other tool. Neutral, like a hammer. I can use a hammer to build a house, I can also use a hammer to break down walls. Constructive and destructive like all tools. It's all about how it's used.

I have a personal dislike for a lot of social media. I'm shy and somewhat private by nature, spewing my random thoughts online just doesn't appeal to me, generally. However, I think the perception of audience and anonymity appeals to many young people. And, they do use it to communicate. One of the big criticisms is that young people use their technology to isolate from the world, however, much of what they do with it is reaching out to and communicating with the world. In a sense, when I pick up a book, I am isolating more than they are. That's just a reality.

I think the issue comes with that very sense of anonymity. There's a lot of ridiculous crap out there and the perception of distance and protective layer of anonymity means that young people feel free to say things that they would never say in person. In person, the repercussions and judgement are immediate and clear.  Society has a moderating effect on behavior. Online, that's diluted. There are as many people celebrating trolls as denouncing them. If someone makes you angry, you can block them. You can't block people in real life...at least not very effectively. In extreme cases, they bring that less constrained communication into real life and suffer real life consequences.

Ultimately, I think that things will re-balance as the internet generation gets older and more mature. Society will begin policing itself again....it just takes time. In the meantime, teachers teach. Which means we need to find positive ways to deal with social media (god help me).