The role of parents, other adults, peers and informal learning communities in shaping positive social media use in adolesent girls.

Purpose: This study aims to introduce the concept of communities of social media practice where more experienced users provide guidance to female novice users, enacting a form of legitimate peripheral participation to "onboard" newcomers. Design/methodology/approach: Through surveys with 968 early adolescents (average age was 13), the authors quantitatively explored sources and types of guidance for young social media users, popularity of conversation themes related to this guidance and how these conversations are associated with positive social media engagement. The authors qualitatively documented a case study of how a summer workshop of 17 students promotes positive social media use through a community of practice. Findings: Although early adolescent girls reported that they more frequently talked to their parents about a wider range of social media topics, same-age peers and younger family members (e.g., siblings, cousins) were also frequent sources. Surprisingly, the authors also found that the source most strongly associated with positive social media use was the peer group. This case study of an intentional community of practice demonstrated how peers go from "peripheral" to "centered" in socializing each other for more positive social media use. Originality/value: Unlike most prior scholarship on mediating social technology use, this study focuses on a critical developmental period (e.g. early adolescents), sources of guidance other than exclusively parents, explore the specific conversation topics that offer guidance and document an informal community of practice for girls that provides the training ground for peers and adult facilitators to codesign more positive social media spaces.

Innovating Novel Online Social Spaces with Diverse Middle School Girls: Ideation and Collaboration in a Synchronous Virtual Design Workshop.

Leveraging social media as a domain of high relevance in the lives of most young adolescents, we led a synchronous virtual design workshop with 17 ethnically diverse, and geographically-dispersed middle school girls (aged 11-14) to co-create novel ICT experiences. Our participatory workshop centered on social media innovation, collaboration, and computational design. We present the culminating design ideas of novel online social spaces, focused on positive experiences for adolescent girls, produced in small-groups, and a thematic analysis of the idea generation and collaboration processes. We reflect on the strengths of utilizing social media as a domain for computing exploration with diverse adolescent girls, the role of facilitators in a synchronous virtual design workshop, and the technical infrastructure that can enable age-appropriate scaffolding for active participation and use of participatory design principles embedded within educational workshops with this population.

Disconnecting and Reconnecting A Photovoice Workshop on Healthy Social Media Use.

Educators, parents, practitioners, and mainstream media often raise concerns about the dangers of social media for teenagers. Frequent social media use and exposure to sites that emphasize anonymity may be risky for young adolescents (Charmaraman, Gladstone, & Richer, 2018). However, with healthy limits, social media can improve social connectivity, enhance a sense of belonging, and provide forums for self-disclosure and identity exploration (James et al., 2017).

Prototyping for Social Wellbeing with Early Social Media Users: Belonging, Experimentation, and Self-Care.

Many 10-14 year olds are at the early stages of using social media, habits they develop on popular platforms can have lasting effects on their socio-emotional wellbeing. We led a remote innovation workshop with 23 middle schoolers on digital wellbeing, identity exploration, and computational concepts related to social computing. This workshop was a unique opportunity to reflect on emergent habits, discuss them with peers, and imagine oneself as an ICT innovator. Resulting themes related to participants' social wellbeing online included a) sense of belonging to communities of interest, friends, and family, b) self-care and social support strategies involving managing risks, control, and empathy, and c) experimentation while building self-confidence and bravely exploring audience reactions. Participants iteratively designed and tested a sandbox social network website, resulting in Social Sketch. Reflecting on our study, we describe the process for conceptualizing Social Sketch, and challenges in social media innovation with teenagers.