Teens on screens: Girls’ negotiations of representations of texting in teen film

Abstract

Teen film is a space where stories about young people’s engagement with technology are told and where relationships and communication are represented. How do girls engage with such stories? This article draws on material from two focus groups held with girls at high schools located in the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand in November 2019 and places this in the context of other representations of image sharing and texting in teen films over the past 25 years. Participants were shown a scene from Netflix teen film Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018), in which Sierra receives a shirtless selfie from Jamey and contemplates how to respond, before finally replying with a picture of a seated elephant. The participants’ discussion illustrates some of the ways girls navigate technology use in their lives and relationships and the complex ways they negotiate popular culture representations of intimacy in teen film.