"Social Media Killed Our Generation": Teenagers' Felt Experiences of Harm on Social Media

Paper Title

'Social Media Killed Our Generation': Teenagers' Felt Experiences of Harm on Social Media

Publication Info

• Topic area: Teenagers' experiences and perceptions of harm on social media platforms.
• Keywords: social media, teenagers, harm, attention economy, platform design, peer influence, parental guidance, digital well-being, compulsive use, safety.

Background and Problem

• Problem / challenge: Teenagers' experiences of harm on social media are underexplored, and existing research often overlooks how platform design contributes to these harms. Responsibility for harm is frequently shifted to users rather than platforms.
• Significance: Adolescence is a critical period for identity formation and emotional regulation, making it essential to understand how social media harms manifest and how they can be mitigated.
• Motivation and related work: Prior research highlights manipulative design patterns, attention-capture mechanisms, and the prevalence of harms like addiction and emotional distress. However, these studies often fail to center teenagers' voices or consider the broader social and ecological contexts influencing their experiences.

Solution

• Proposed approach: The study conducts semi-structured interviews with teenagers to explore their lived experiences of harm on social media, focusing on how they conceptualize harm and navigate risks.
• Novelty:
  1. Provides a detailed account of how teenagers perceive and respond to social media harms.
  2. Situates harm within the broader context of platform affordances, peer norms, and technology governance.
  3. Highlights the tension between teenagers' perceived agency and the structural influences of platform design.
  4. Proposes an ecological perspective on harm, incorporating multiple stakeholders (e.g., parents, schools, platforms).
• Procedure and key techniques:
  • Conducted eight semi-structured interviews with teenagers aged 12–17 in the Midwest US.
  • Used reflexive thematic analysis to identify three themes: "Being a ‘Normal’ Teen," "Felt Experiences and Othering of Harms," and "Social Media Ecologies Complicate Construction of Norms and Prevention of Harm."
  • Examined proactive, reactive, and non-reactive strategies teens use to manage risks.

Results

• Concrete findings:
  • Teens join social media to conform to peer norms, often starting before the legal age of 13, with an average sign-up age of 11.
  • Harm is often externalized, with teens attributing negative experiences to others' poor judgment rather than platform design.
  • Teens experience emotional and attentional harms, including stress, compulsion, and pressure to maintain social connections.
  • Platforms are perceived as largely absent in harm prevention, with teens relying on self-imposed strategies like limiting screen time or blocking users.
• Advantage over baselines: Provides a nuanced, teen-centered perspective on harm, emphasizing the interplay between individual agency and structural design, which is often overlooked in existing studies.
• Experiments / evaluation:
  • Data collected through interviews with eight participants aged 12–17.
  • Thematic analysis identified patterns in how teens perceive harm, manage risks, and interact with social media platforms.
  • Findings contextualized within broader literature on platform design, attention economy, and adolescent development.
• Limitations and future work:
  • Limited geographic and demographic scope (Midwest US, college town).
  • Future work should explore diverse populations and engage teens in participatory design workshops to co-create safer platforms.
  • Calls for interdisciplinary research to address emotional and systemic dimensions of harm.

Summary

This study examines teenagers' experiences of harm on social media, revealing how platform design, peer norms, and broader social ecologies shape their perceptions and strategies for managing risks. Teens often externalize harm, attributing it to others' poor judgment, while overestimating their own agency. Emotional and attentional harms are prevalent but underrecognized by teens as systemic issues. Platforms are seen as largely absent in harm prevention, leaving teens to rely on self-imposed strategies. The findings underscore the need for shared accountability among platforms, policymakers, and users to create safer digital environments for adolescents.