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Friendship 105special attention to the role that social media play in the negotiation ofteen status.Teens seeking to spread rumors or engage in drama often use socialmedia. These acts may be lightweight parts of everyday teen life or theymay snowball in magnitude and become acts of bullying. Regardless ofthe intensity, our research shows that the acts of drama involving socialmedia are primarily a continuation of broader dramas. Stan, a whiteeighteen-year-old from Iowa, said: “You’d actually be surprised how littlethings change. I’m guessing a lot of the drama is still the same; it’s justthe format is a little different. It’s just changing the font and changingthe background color really.” While the underlying practices may be thesame, Michael, a white seventeen-year-old from Seattle, pointed out thatsocial media amplify dramas because they extend social worlds beyondthe school.MySpace is a huge drama maker, but when you stick a lot of people in one thing,then it’s . . . it always causes drama. ‘Cause, like . . . MySpace is, like, a really bigschool . . . school’s filled with drama. MySpace is filled with drama. It’s just whenyou get people together like that, that’s just how life works and stuff.Properties of social media can alter the visibility of these acts, making themmore persistent and more difficult for participants to get a complete pictureof what’s happening or interpret the acts accurately.Gossip and rumors have played a role in teen struggles for status andattention since well before social media entered the scene (Milner 2004).When teens gather with friends and peers, they share stories about otherfriends and peers. New communication channels—including mobilephones, IM, and social network sites—have all been used for the purposesof gossip. Some teens believe that the new media tend to replace the oldermedia as a tool for gossip. Trevor, a white seventeen-year-old from a northernCalifornia suburb in C. J. Pascoe’s “Living Digital” study, argued that“the Internet has taken the place of phones . . . it spreads all rumors andgossip.”While it is unclear whether or not the Internet has changed the frequencyof gossip, social media certainly alter the efficiency and potentialscale of interactions. Because of this, there is greater potential for gossipto spread much farther and at a faster pace, making social media a catalystin teen drama. While teen gossip predates the Internet, some teens blame