ABSTRACT
This chapter explores that emerging adults are aware that two discourses surround act of sexting—one that normalizes sexting among adults and a second that problematizes sexting among adolescents and children—and that their unique social position—not quite adults and not quite adolescents—means that their sexting is likely to be scrutinized. Sexting poses a challenge for researchers because emerging adults know that societal and local discourses construct practice as sexual, private, and potentially deviant. Despite their reservations about the concept, emerging adults realize that sexting is the dominant concept others use to frame their behavior. While emerging adults narrowly define sexting to exclude behaviors they believe that adults mistakenly conflate with it, they offer a broad definition for what constitutes a sext in order to challenge what they believe to be adults' assumption that a sext equals a nude photograph. Emerging adults argue that sexts can take many forms, ranging from flirty text messages with only words to sexually explicit nude images.
