Prototyping for Social Wellbeing with Early Social Media Users

Document Title

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

Document Information

• Subject Area: Adolescent social media use and social wellbeing design
• Keywords: Adolescents, social media, ICT, health, social wellbeing, prototyping, collaborative research

Research Background and Issues

• Identified Problems or Challenges:

  • Adolescents (especially ages 10-14) are significant users of social media, and their early usage habits have long-term impacts on social and emotional health.
  • This age group is often overlooked as primary users of social media: although many platforms prohibit users under 13, this restriction is frequently circumvented.
  • Adolescents face various challenges in building social relationships and personal identity, including internet addiction, FoMO (Fear of Missing Out), anonymity management, and complexities of self-expression.
  • Current social media designs lack support for the psychological and social developmental needs of adolescents aged 10-14.

• Research Importance:

  • Social interactions during this stage are crucial for adolescents' identity formation and mental health.
  • During the COVID-19 pandemic, ICT became increasingly important, making research on its impact on adolescent wellbeing more urgent.

• Research Motivation and Related Work:

  • Existing studies show that social media simultaneously fosters connection and isolation, influencing adolescents' emotional health, behavior, and social support systems.
  • The research aims to explore the social media usage habits and needs of early adolescent users to propose innovative designs and educational interventions tailored to this age group.

Solution

• Proposed Solution:

  • Designed and implemented a 4-day remote innovation workshop focusing on concepts related to digital wellbeing, identity exploration, and social computing.
  • Developed a social network sandbox, “Social Sketch,” to allow adolescent users to experience interactive design and explore how social media can support social wellbeing.

• Innovations:

  • Utilized the “Cooperative Inquiry” method, engaging adolescents as design partners in the iterative process of social media design.
  • Proposed educational and prototyping activities related to social wellbeing, using the sandbox website as an experimental platform.
  • Integrated design features such as anonymity, content tagging, and visual feedback to promote safe expression and interaction among adolescents.

• Implementation Steps and Key Technologies:

  1. Workshop Structure:
     • Day 1: Discuss character design and key design directions.
     • Day 2: Explore anonymity and photo upload features using the sandbox website.
     • Day 3: Update the user interface and design anonymous posting and tag filtering features.
     • Day 4: Test the final version and conduct risk assessments.
  2. Technical Implementation:
     • Front-end development using HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript, with Firebase for backend management and user authentication to enhance students’ understanding of database and account management functionalities.
  3. Data Collection and Analysis:
     • Behavioral data and feedback were collected through Zoom recordings, Seesaw activity submissions, and surveys.
     • Qualitative data was analyzed using thematic analysis to extract design and behavioral patterns.

Research Outcomes

• Specific Outcomes:

  • Thematic Findings:

    • Adolescents showed interest in anonymity features, recognizing their potential to support self-expression and identity exploration.
    • Participants acknowledged the importance of risk management and social support in social media, such as avoiding negative impacts through content filtering and positive comments.
    • Suggestions for optimizing existing social media features (e.g., likes, comments, and content recommendation algorithms) were collected from adolescents.

  • Final Design Features of Social Sketch:

    • Enabled anonymous posting and flexible identity switching.
    • Replaced the “like” mechanism with view counts to reduce social pressure.
    • Added content filtering tags to allow users to browse content based on interests, improving information retrieval efficiency.

• Advantages Compared to Existing Solutions:

  • Provided a safe and experimental environment for adolescent users to explore potential social media designs.
  • Promoted social wellbeing and reduced psychological stress for adolescents, such as removing traditional like and comment functionalities.

• Experimental or Evaluation Results:

  • Female participants reported significant improvements in online expression, sense of belonging, and confidence in computational skills.
  • Participants expressed high levels of interest and engagement in guest interviews, feature iteration testing, and identity exploration activities.

• Limitations and Future Directions:

  • Limitations:
    • Workshop participants were primarily students from the U.S. East Coast, limiting sample diversity.
    • Increased digital environment usage during the pandemic may have skewed results compared to pre-pandemic habits.
  • Future Directions:
    • Validate the applicability of the prototype design across broader age groups and cultural contexts.
    • Further study the balance between anonymity and public recognition in design.
    • Explore ways to expand the application of Social Sketch to better support adolescent wellbeing and diverse interconnected experiences.