ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the human social relationships and interactions that youth experience online and through social media. Many concerns about and promises of digital media described by young people centre on novel and shifting forms of relationships and sociality. These are unpacked in relation to anthropological theory that focusses on the emergent social realities revealed through online interactional and normative orders. The chapter is grounded in participant perspectives about social and interactional norms, practices, and connections when human communication is mediated by technology in the digital age. Particular attention is paid to both overt and latent tensions, which exemplify the simultaneous promises and predicaments that young people identify in their digital social lives.
