“It’s not necessarily the app, the app can be a positive thing” : children’s perspectives on their own social media use.

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Linköping University | Master’s thesis, 15 credits Master’s programme in Child Studies,Year 2 2020

“It’s not necessarily the app, the app

can be a positive thing”: children’s

perspectives on their own social media use.

Anna Grabowski

Supervisor: Mats Andrén

Examiner: Anette Wickström

Linköping University SE-581 83 Linköping, Sweden

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Abstract

This thesis was motivated by the widespread use of social media by children, and the lack of research on perceptions of their own use. It expands on previous research which, while sometimes including children’s voices, largely focuses on the negative impact that social media has on well-being. Instead, this thesis seeks insight into children’s views on their and their peers use of social media, what motivates their particular use, and how they describe the positive and negative experiences of it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with children between 12 and 15 years old and thematic analysis was used to consider the data, along with an interpretivist and contextualist epistemological approach. The themes included, firstly; social media as a place for children to connect and to spend time, secondly; positive experiences that included, learning and inspiration, fun and happiness, and perspective taking, thirdly; negative experiences relating to privacy and anonymity, bullying and bad feelings, and a lack of social clues, and lastly; a particular peer culture which included gender differences as part of their experience of using social media. The study concludes that,

though research on social media and children has been largely looked at in terms of risk, children see it as a normalized aspect of childhood where they socialize with friends, spend time playing and learning about different things, and hang out with their peers. Social media is described as a neutral tool by the children. With this notion of neutrality, by further understanding children’s experiences and perspectives, there could be more support in ensuring that this tool is shaped and used in a way that works more in their best interest. Social media is inevitably a big part of children’s leisure time today, and ‘moral panic’, being a persistent rhetoric around childhood, may not be helpful for children.

Keywords:

Children’s perspectives on social media, thematic analysis, social media, children and social media, children’s voices

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Acknowledgements

I would like to express my gratitude to Mats Andrén at the Department of Thematic Studies/Child Studies in Linköping University for his incredible support and thoughtful guidance in the writing of this thesis.

I would also like to acknowledge the children who took the time to share their experiences and ideas with me. I am passionate about the value of children’s voices and am inspired by what they shared!

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1. Introduction

For the vast majority of western children nowadays, social media is a significant part of their lives. Born into an increasingly digitized and mediatized world, children’s intimate

relationship with social media has become a normalized aspect of today’s childhood. In the UK, 83% of children aged 12 to 15 years old own a smartphone and go online for at least 21 hours per week (Ofcom, 2018). Similar figures are reported in Canada (CPS, 2019) and in Europe (Livingstone, Haddon, Vincent, Mascheroni, & Olafsson, 2014:11).

This widespread use of social media makes it an important aspect of children’s leisure time. According to Frønes, leisure and free time is “the primary arena of children’s social and cultural autonomy” and has also become a part of the concept of the “right to a childhood” (2011: 273) – although the level of acceptance of these norms varies culturally and

historically. In the western world today, leisure time is central to the concept of childhood, and offers one of the most critical aspects of child-focused research, because it seeks understanding of children’s social worlds (James and James, 2008: 100).

To examine children’s descriptions of how they and their peers use social media, this thesis will use an interpretivist epistemological framework. Specifically, six children between the ages of 12 and 15 years of age were interviewed about their use of social media, what motivates them to use it, and what kind of role it has in their everyday lives.

Most previous qualitative research on this topic is done through an adult perspective on children’s use of social media, in particular as it relates to well-being (e.g. Cernikova et al. 2018; O’Reilly et al. 2018). The risks versus benefits of children’s use of social media has occupied a great part of the discussion on this topic. The objective of this master’s thesis is to take an interest in children’s own perspectives on their use of social media. Social media will be explored as a space in which children are active agents, rather than something that just ‘impacts’ them and their well-being. In other words, social media is viewed here more as a partly open-ended process, or a tool with many potential uses, in which the children are actively engaging and co-creating their reality. Along with agency, the concepts of peer culture, moral panic, and leisure time are placed in a theoretical context and used in this thesis to discuss children’s views on social media. By including children’s voices in this research, this study opens up for the possibility that the focus on risks associated with social media may not be how children think of themselves and their use of social media

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What is social media?

The definition of social media for the purpose of this thesis are; “forms of electronic communication (such as websites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos)” (Merriam-Webster, 2020). In general, social media applications (or apps) exist on the internet and save content that are uploaded by the user. There are a variety of apps, and in this study Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok were discussed by the children. Instagram is a platform where one can share photos or videos that one can “like” (that appears as a certain number of heart symbols) and leave comments or send messages (one can also “like” the comments and messages). It also includes a story feature where one can share posts that last for a day. Snapchat is an interactive platform where photos or videos are sent between users and are limited to a short period of availability before they disappear. TikTok is a performative music-oriented app, where dancing, singing, and both talented and funny performances can be shared as video content which also includes the ability to “like” and comment. On these apps, the user creates profiles that shows information about them, such as things they post, photos and videos etc. Users can either have open profiles, where anyone can see their information or closed profiles, which require accepted requests to be able to see each other’s profiles and establish networks of connection. Users are also able to block accounts that they do not want to interact with and are able to report any inappropriate behavior through the apps.

2. Research problem and questions

The importance of including children as active participants in research around social media, is to gain insight into how and why they use it, in order to better grasp what role it plays for them, and to support their best interests around their use of it. The age range typically accepted as the minimum age of social media usage is 13 years (UNICEF, 2018: 9).

However, the age of 12 year was included for the purpose of this research, on the assumption that this age group uses social media too, and their inclusion would elevate the variety of different perspectives of children. By including the voices of children and their perspectives on this particular aspect of their lives, this thesis contributes to a topic and field of research

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that has mainly focused on health and well-being in relation to children’s social media usage, typically looking at risks and potential dangers. The aim of this thesis is to broaden the scope of how we can understand children’s own understanding of their use of social media.

Therefore, this thesis sets out to explore the following research questions:

1.

How do children describe their use of social media amongst themselves?

2.

What motivates them to use it in the ways they do, according to themselves?

3.

In what ways do they state it plays a role in their everyday lives, negative and positive?

3. Previous Research

This section examines previous research literature related to children and their use of social media. It provides a summary of the various studies that frame the discourse around

children’s use of social media, through the adult narrative as well as from children’s own perspectives.

3.1

.

Quantitative studies

Despite variations in the points of departure in previous quantitative studies, I have chosen to discuss these studies together, as they are based on similar underlying orientations and assumptions around approaching questions of children and social media. This approach is largely around the potential risks and negative aspects of using social media and impacts to children’s health. One such study, from a psychological perspective was done through questionnaires administered to children between the ages of 12 and 15 at schools in the Netherlands (van den Eijnden et al. 2008: 657). The study found that the relationship between adolescents use of online communication and their psychosocial well-being creates an

increase in depressive feelings the more they use social media (ibid: 663). Similarly, a study by Twigg, Duncan, and Weich (2020: 73) focused on sociocultural influences such as

household environment to look at overall life satisfaction in relation to social media use of 10 to 15-year old’s. Findings reported that a higher use of social media was reported with lower levels of happiness, particularly in girls. The study concludes that moderate use of social media is not associated with lower overall life satisfaction for children (ibid). These two studies contribute findings that suggest increased social media use negatively impacts children’s well-being, particularly in girls.

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Alternatively, Valkenburg, Peter, and Schouten (2006: 587,589) surveyed Dutch children from 10 to 19 years of age and found that children’s well-being and self-esteem were impacted by the feedback received on their online profiles. The study with a developmental psychology orientation stated that 78% of adolescents reported mostly positive feedback using friend networking sites and experienced a boosted sense of self-esteem, whereas 7% did mostly receive negative feedback online (ibid). In other words, in this study more children than not reported a positive impact on self-esteem from online socializing.

A current study by Best, Manktelow, and Taylor (2014), contributing a systematic narrative review of social media and adolescent well-being, reports mixed results that “the benefits of using online technologies were reported as increased self-esteem, perceived social support, increased social capital, safe identity experimentation and increased opportunity for self-disclosure. Harmful effects were reported as increased exposure to harm, social isolation, depression and cyber-bullying” (ibid: 1). This shows that there are varied experiences that take place on social media, not only negative ones. In those lines, George and Odgers (2015) offers a review of main concerns around children and social media, looking at national surveys and interviews with parents. Findings include parents’ concerns, which are mainly around risks to well-being and health, cyberbullying, sleep loss from excessive use, problems concentrating, and worry about parent’s ability to connect with their children as a result of their social media use (ibid: 11,17). Though some of the previous literature does account for positive experiences from children, that has not been the case for parents’ perceptions of children using social media. Most of the quantitative research around social media has focused on risks and negative features, such as cyberbullying, excessive or addictive use, and health related risks such as obesity (e.g., Burke, 2016; Salmela-Aro et al. 2017; Kuss et al. 2013).

3.2. Qualitative Research

In previous research conducted with qualitative methodologies, the focus is also largely on threats to well-being and risks. Cernikova, Smahel, and Wright studied children’s own perceptions of the impact of digital media on their health. Using 114 semi-structured interviews and 56 focus groups with children between 9 and 16 years of age, their results indicate that children seldom acknowledges health effects in relation to excessive internet use or cyberbullying, and rarely talks about direct consequences of using social media (2018: 666). While children reported experiencing “eye problems, headaches, eating problems, and

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tiredness”, they did not directly attribute it to technology use (ibid: 669). Instead, the children expressed that risks to well-being around digital technology mostly happen to others, in extreme cases such as abuse, murder, addiction to social media, and suicide (ibid: 670). The study concludes that children’s experiences on the impact of digital media, is not connected with their own awareness of it happening.

Another qualitative study on mental health and children and social media was done by O’Reilly (2020). She conducted six focus groups to explore “the good, the bad, and the ugly” sides of social media with participant from 11 to 18 year, and then held two focus group discussions with mental health practitioners using thematic analysis (ibid: 1). Outcomes suggest a complex relationship between adolescent’s mental health and social media use. Positive aspects included maintaining friendships, building communication skills, facilitated resilience to stress (ibid: 3). Negative experiences were stated as overuse, linked with low self-esteem, less sleep, a sense of missing out if they did not use social media, as well as expressing that their parents did not understand the significance and pressure of using social media (ibid: 3-4). The ‘ugly side’ included bullying and trolling, which could lead to self-harm (ibid: 4). The study concludes that adolescents express similar concerns as adult health practitioners around social media’s negative impact on mental health, but that children themselves focuses slightly more of the positive aspects (ibid: 5). The study emphasizes the importance of supporting children, and particularly the most vulnerable, to build resilience and to be supported in their use by understanding the potential risks as well as the benefits as perceived by children (ibid).

Additionally, a study that uses thematic analysis to explore the perspectives of adolescents around social media related to mental health and well-being was done by O’Reilly et al. (2018). Motivated by the scarcity of empirical research on how adolescents themselves perceive social media, they used focus group discussions with 54 children between the ages of 11 and 18 (ibid: 603). Findings suggests that adolescents were impacted by getting mood and anxiety disorders, cyberbullying was a big part of social media, and the use of it was discussed as a sort of ‘addiction’ (ibid: 601). This study suggests that rather than blaming social media as the issue, there should be involvement of youth in shaping these platforms both in design and usability to reduce negative impacts (ibid: 610). It also suggests that children should be more educated around mental health and well-being, as well as supported to use social media in more beneficial ways (ibid).

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A relevant report by Ofcom, a UK based telecommunications and government regulatory authority, studied media use, attitudes, and understanding around children between the ages of 5 and 15. Findings showed that though negative experiences may occur, overall children feel more positive than negative using social media (Ofcom, 2019: 21). Social pressure was identified as increasing with age, and 40% of children aged 12 to 15 felt pressure to be popular on these sites (ibid). It was also reported that about two thirds of the child

participants believed that only some of what they see on social media is true, and only 1 in 10 believed all information they see to be ‘true’ (ibid: 21). Half of the parents in this study were involved with checking on what children are doing on social media, and most parents

expressed that they trust their children though they feel their ability to know what their children are doing decreased as the children got older (ibid: 30).

In summary, qualitative studies including children and social media have involved children as active participants, yet the focus has largely been around how social media use relates to health and well-being. In other words, there is a lack of research surrounding how children perceive social media to complement the dialogue about health and well-being.

3.3. Research on concepts in childhood studies

Research on the notion of leisure, agency, moral panic, and peer culture within childhood studies provide important lenses to looking at the topic of children and social media. The notion of leisure time is central to the concept of childhood, and in the western world social media is a big part of how many children spend their free time. Within childhood studies, play has been defined as a broad concept, such as “pleasurable activities freely engaged in by children; freedom from work; to act frivolously or capriciously” (James and James, 2008: 98). It is also a significant part of children’s rights, as articulated in Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), which clearly states the “right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities” (in: ibid: 99). This broad concept of play and leisure holds a significance for childhood, for how “children make use of different spaces in the environment” and it also said to enable children’s friendships and peer cultures as part of their experience of the social world (ibid: 99). Social media has become a central aspect of children’s leisure time as well as a new space or place where a variety of features related to play occur. Frønes argues that leisure is something done by

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children as “activities chosen for their own sake” and that this activity selected during free time is “created by the social or subjective framing” (2011, 277). Leisure then becomes framed within cultural discourses, many of which are driven by adults, in many cases leisure is controlled by parents who want to ensure that their children use this time effectively, to develop social and cultural capital (277, 282). In this way, parents can have a big influence how children spend their time and exploration of leisurely pursuits.

Drotner illustrates well how the discourse on social media and childhood is bound in a top down approach, namely in the ways adult’s debate and intervene in children’s use of social media (2011: 360). She frames the notion of social media within the larger context of childhood studies, by illustrating that the discourses of concern occupying much of the discussion around social media are bound to a normative aspect of childhood, which are moral panics that go beyond the actual medium and a particular place and time (ibid: 361). This idea, of adult’s moral panic over children, varies in sociocultural terms and has included issues such as television use, sugar consumption, and obesity.

The notion of agency is largely amiss from the previous research on children and social media. This research aims to highlight how children engage actively with social media as a part of their daily lives, rather than as passive users. In this way, children’s agency depends on more than just being permitted to use social media by parents. According to Lee (2001) and Prout (2005), to be able to include facets of socio-material in understanding children’s agency, there must be attention on the networks that children engage in (in Wickström, 2018: 3). “Children may act as agents of change, but they are dependent on people and materiality for their ability to do so” (Wickström, 2018: 3). Agency depends on how the children

maneuver and steer the experiences that take place on social media. In this study, the concept of agency is understood as residing within the network that social media offers. In addition to how they navigate social media use, agency also plays a role in part of the peer culture they create within its use.

Peer Culture is another central concept in childhood studies relevant to this research. Peer culture is defined by Corsaro as “a stable set of activities or routines, artefacts, values and concerns that children produce and share in interaction with peers (Corsaro and Elder, 1990; Corsaro, 2005: 2011: 301). He differentiates this from being members of peer groups, to

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highlight that this is something enacted and produced (ibid). This culture formed by children with peers becomes their own version of culture as they try to “gain control of their lives and to share that control with each other” (ibid: 302). Schwartzman (1978); and Corsaro (2005) argue that defying and disrespecting adult authority could be a central aspect to peer cultures (ibid: 305). One qualitative study looked at peer culture in relation to social media and Norwegian teens. Findings show how social media has created a more unrestrained way of communication amongst peers, and that the constant ability to communicate with peers has overtaken family-oriented culture (Kaare et al. 2007: 621). Though this study did not illustrate the details of peer culture on social media, it does indicate that there is much more time spent interacting with peers in a less reserved way, which has decreased time spent with parents.

4. Epistemological framework

An interpretivist and contextualist epistemological framework was chosen in support of understanding and analyzing the data through thematic analysis. Interpretivism as defined by Bryman is an approach that “requires the social scientist to grasp the subjective meaning of social action” (ibid) as opposed to how things are considered within the natural sciences. This difference is that in the social sciences, “social reality has a meaning for human beings and therefore human action is meaningful- that is, it has a meaning for them and they act on the basis of the meanings that they attribute to their acts and the acts of others” (ibid: 27). In this way, this approach supports the researcher in this particular study to direct the analytic attention to the meaning children make of social media and how they discuss and explain their use of it as well as how others use it. By including children as active participants in this research, the aim is to gain insight into how children think about social media use, how they use it, and to “interpret their actions and their social world from their point of view” as suggested by Bryman (ibid).

A contextualist position accounts for “the way individuals make meaning of their experience, and, in turn the ways the broader social context impinges on those meanings, while retaining focus on the material and other limits of ‘reality’” (ibid: 81). The contextualist approach used alongside thematic analysis “works both to reflect reality and to unpick or unravel the surface of ‘reality’” (ibid). In this way, the social situation that children find themselves in is

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of society and adults in the children’s lives influences the context that children are both using social media in and understanding it, which in this study is applied to the notion that children are using social media in their own ways albeit within their particular milieu. None of this means that the researcher is merely a neutral observer of the meanings produced by the children, as there is also further interpretation and meaning making in the act of carrying out the research. The researcher is actively involved in formulating the topic of the research and the research questions, in interacting with the children during the interviews, in the creation of the written product, and more. This, however, does not contradict the aim of taking serious interest in the children’s point of view. Consequently, this position also means that the

researcher themselves is offering a particular way of seeing social reality, rather than an absolute truth (Bryman, 2016: 29). Therefore, this study aims to offer a glimpse into the perception of social media use by a small group of children, who offer many insights into their experiences and understanding of their social reality.

5. Method

5.1. Recruitment of participants

As someone who uses social media and is curious about how this phenomenon is part of our everyday lives, I was interested in speaking to the younger generation who I believe use this in their own way. I utilized a fixed purposive sampling strategy which is carried out in relation to the research aim and to match specific criteria being sought in the sample group (Bryman, 2016: 410). Since my aim was to find participants between the specific ages of 12 and 15 interested in speaking to me, I asked my friends and people in my social network in both Sweden and Canada if they knew children between these ages and set out to also ensure I found participants with mixed genders that I did not personally know. Bryman suggests that purposive sampling is an intentional approach that ensures the participants sampled are both relevant to research questions and to have variety in the sample (ibid: 408). Another

important aspect of purposive sampling is that it does not support the researcher to generalize research to a population (ibid), which is not my intended purpose, as my aim is to gain context about specific perspectives on social media from a diverse group of child participants. As I don’t speak Swedish, my initial plan was to conduct some Facetime

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children in Sweden in person. However, with the COVID-19 situation, I ended up conducting all of my interviews either through FaceTime or Skype, with children both in Sweden and Canada. Out of the 8 children I contacted, 3 boys and 3 girls participated.

5.2. The empirical data: semi-structured interviews

Semi-structured interviews enable a more open-ended way of finding out answers and letting the ideas and theories come out of the data (Bryman, 2016: 10). This allows for more

flexibility than structured interviews, which set out to answer certain pre-specified questions. As this research aims to bring children’s perspectives on social media to light, an inductive approach was chosen for its supportive manner in capturing what the children have to say by having the theory come out of the research rather than using what the children have to say to support a theory (ibid: 22). Semi-structured interviews support this qualitative study as my aim is to find out what children discuss about social media and to interpret what this may mean for them and for this field of research. One set of questions was created for children who would say they use social media and another set for children who wouldn’t claim to use social media (see Appendix 1). Individuals within my network found potential participants by asking their friends who are parents to discuss the study with their children. The individuals within my network then emailed the consent forms and the information about me and the study that I had provided them with. I then heard back from interested participants by receiving emails from the parents who either set up a time for the interview (through

FaceTime) or emailed me their children’s FaceTime contact information to set up a time with the children. Two of the six participants had their interviews scheduled by their parents on FaceTime, three of the children texted with me to set up a FaceTime call that worked. The sixth interview was set up by their parent as a Skype call with their child. Calls were recorded through a recording device provided by Linköping University. Interview lengths ranged between 12 to 35 minutes as some children were more talkative than others. The children were usually shy at first and the more I allowed them to take their time and not feel rushed, they shifted to be more comfortable and communicate with ease. Some took out their phones to show me how snapchat looked like as they described the details of how they used it. I found it important to leave open ended questions at the end, as this generated interesting data in a few instances.

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5.3. Thematic Analysis

Thematic analysis was the approach chosen to analyze the data, and it was carried out within an interpretivist epistemological framework. Thematic analysis is one of the most commonly used methods for analyzing qualitative data (Bryman, 2016: 584). The particular way I have incorporated thematic analysis is by transcribing the interviews word for word and then looking for repeating ideas and patterns which were formed into codes. These codes were then grouped into thematic areas, both themes and subthemes, related to the research questions as suggested by Bryman (ibid). Though repetition is one of the most common factors in identifying themes, the relevance to the research questions was closely considered (ibid). Braun and Clarke similarly outline the process of using thematic analysis and also suggest that a theme counts in qualitative research when it “captures something important in the data in relation to the research question, and represents some level of patterned response or meaning within the data set” (2006: 82). This therefore highlights the importance of the researcher’s role in choosing themes as deemed both recurrent and relevant in relation to the research question at hand. Within a contextualist position, the process of choosing themes focused on how participants make meaning of using social media within their experiences that are embedded in a larger sociocultural context (ibid: 81). As this process can be a rather subjective one, I have incorporated the procedures outlined by Bryman to seek to identify patterns in the children’s descriptions of their use of social media as follows:

1. To become familiar with my data set I read through the transcript several times, first by closely reading each participant’s answers and then looking at the answers from everyone as a cohesive piece to be analyzed.

2. I then reread data with initial coding using various colors to be linked with various related concepts that I saw in the data, placing them together as codes.

3. I looked for commonalities and potential relatedness in the codes to create themes and to reduce the amount of codes into central themes.

4. I then created subthemes under the themes based on what stood out as most relevant and most recurrent in the answers in relation to the main themes. The themes and subthemes were chosen and organized in a way that is coherent with the aim of the study by focusing on motivations, staying close to what the children emphasized as important in relation to the questions.

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5. I then explored potential links between themes with my supervisor who provided input. This caused some revisions and the themes were organized into the four final themes.

6. In the analysis I will aim to justify the themes chosen based on efforts to answer the research questions and in relation to previous literature and theory.

5.4. Ethical Considerations

Consent forms were sent to parents and children both to read and sign, which stated

information about the aim of the study, how data would be collected, how information would be handled, and how privacy would be respected. There was also the inclusion of clear messaging about being able to withdraw from the study for any reason and at any time. The design of this research was vetted through the ethical vetting board of the Child Studies master’s programme at Linköping University, based on a research plan submitted to ensure all ethical considerations met the master’s programme policies. Additionally, in regards to key concerns around doing research with children argued by Alderson, it was reflected on whether this research is worth doing and if the research was explained in a way that was clear for participants to be able to make an informed decision about consenting to participate (2005, 27). It was communicated clearly that they could change their mind and not be part of the study at any time (ibid). I created the research questions in a way that reflected both positive and adverse aspects of their use of social media. This promotes ethical research, which is stated as avoiding biased reports that may impact children negatively (ibid:29). The research questions were also designed to mitigate any potential ethical concerns, by being formed in a way that did not delve into potential sensitive issues or force children to discuss negative emotional experiences around social media use or anything that could create unintentional harm. I also had to consider that in case children reported harm to themselves or others, or any sort of abuse or violation, I would be ready to ask them if they are being supported or if they need help in getting some. Additionally, I was aware of the potential of having to report to the appropriate authorities if any information was presented that broke the law. The names of children are substituted with an alias to ensure anonymity and to respect their privacy.

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Reflexivity as a researcher was another important aspect of maintaining ethical

considerations through the entire research process. I tried to ensure a data group that was as diverse as possible within the limited scope of this thesis. Furthermore, as suggested by Spyrou, throughout the research I efforted to remain reflexive about the ways in which I was making meaning of the themes and what sort of knowledge was created about children (2011:154). This was challenging as times as I had to make an effort not to let my own opinions and ideas to get mixed or to influence how the children’s voices were represented.

Moreover, as argued by Mayall (2000) researchers must acknowledge their position of authority over the children in the research role (in Spyrou, 2011:154). I did this as suggested by Mayall, by informing the children prior to starting the interview that I as the adult was seeking out their expertise as children, about their perspectives and use of social media, to be able to gain an understanding that is missing and mostly contributed from adult’s viewpoints. In my view, this created a more relaxed and respectful base to conduct the interview from.

6. Analysis

The analysis comes from the data of child participants; out of the 6 interviewees, only one child didn’t use social media. The questions prepared in the interview guide was largely followed, and by conducting semi-structured interviews, this inductive explorative approach supported the researcher to “keep an open mind about the shape of what he or she needs to know about, so that concepts and theories can emerge from the data” (Bryman, 2016: 10)..

Name Gender Age

Ella Female 14 Alexandra Female 12 Maya Female 15 Albin Male 12 Thomas Male 12 Kevin Male 13

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The following is an exploration of the themes that were identified through the thematic analysis, based on the data from the interviews.

Figure 1. Thematic map

6.1. Social media as a place

The child participants defined social media as a place to share content and various things, similarly to the Merriam-Webster definition mentioned above. However, they also

consistently conveyed that to them, social media holds a more nuanced meaning which included several references to being “a place” or a “a room”. This can suggest more than just an online space, as defined by Merriam-Webster, as it carried a more personalized and emotional meaning. This place, from their perspective, provides more than just forms of electronic communication and a means of sharing information. They described this place to be full of opportunities for maintaining and building connection, to waste time, to play, to learn, to express oneself, to meet people, and to provide a multitude of experiences. The subthemes of this main theme of social media as a place, are identified as a place to connect and a place to spend time.

A place Positive experiences Negative experiences A particular Peer culture

A place to connect A place to spend

time Learning and Inspiration Fun and Happiness Perspective Taking Privacy and Anonymity Bullying and Bad Feelings Lack of Social Cues Gender Differences

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6.1.1. A place to connect

The subtheme of social media being a place to connect, was commonly discussed by the child participants. This included connecting to friends as a way to maintain and build friendships as well as to meeting new people. Ella illustrates this place of connection by defining social media as, “a place where people can stay in contact…it’s a way for people, if they don’t have each other’s phone number and stuff to stay in contact or to meet new people”. Albin describes it similarly “like a room where you can live and be with friends”, and Maya echoes this by expressing that it is “ a place to talk to my friends, especially it depends on what app of course, but like snapchat is just for talking to friends or new people”. These characterizations of social media convey the notion of connection to current friends as well as a way to make new ones. It also brings up that the various apps are used in different ways, which will be discussed later on in a theme called A particular peer culture. The sense of connection found through social media was discussed as one of the main motivations for using it, as a way “to get to know more people” according to Ella, or to maintain friendships with “light-hearted chats” according to Kevin.

There was also the idea that they connect through sharing themselves through social media. Thomas, who doesn’t use social media, expressed that he understood social media to be “a place that you can say something to one person or to many many people and you can say what you think about everything”. Kevin who uses social media frequently echoed this sentiment, by stating that it’s a place to share his life and that “Instagram’s a good way to see what everybody’s doing”. Similarly, Ella adds that, “people can just really express who they are”. Sharing one’s own thoughts, what they’re doing or expressing themselves in various ways was a big part of what was described to take place on social media.

They acknowledged that if social media didn’t exist then they would continue to connect in real life and make plans by telephone. However, they also said it is both easier and more convenient to stay in touch more frequently through social media. It was acknowledged that social media is something that they were born into as part of their social reality, as explained by Ella,

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“it’s something that we use all the time, but I feel like if we didn’t have it in the first place, like our parents and stuff, and we had to get normalized to it, it wouldn’t be such a big deal because we would have different things and different ways of

communicating … so it’s very different from what our parents are used to and that’s why for us its normal but for them they see it as something that we use and we don’t really think about what we are doing”.

This acknowledges that this place of social media is more meaningful to certain generations and that some children see it as a normalized part of today’s childhood. Social media as a normalized phenomenon was explicit as was it being a place that offers different kinds of opportunities for children today. These social media platforms were described to offer a place that enhanced the ability to connect through sharing information about themselves with each other, career opportunities, playing games together, and staying in touch.

6.1.2. A place to spend time

The subtheme of social media being a place to spend time was also apparent throughout the data. Four of the children said they spent most of their days on social media. Ella responded to a question of how often she uses social media by saying:

“A lot, like a lot, so I’ll wake up and go check snapchat and go see if there’s stuff and then I’ll go to Instagram and see if there’s anything new on there and then I’ll go to TikTok and scroll through a couple of videos and then I’ll get up and through the day I’ll find myself on snapchat talking to my friends a lot and like sometimes when I get bored, I’ll find myself on TikTok or Instagram just scrolling through and then at night, I’ll spend a lot of time like scrolling through TikTok, answering snapchats, and scrolling through Instagram. I’ll find myself on there a lot”

Not all participants used it in this way. Thomas doesn’t use social media as he said it is not interesting. Alexandra describes her frequency of use as “I would say maybe four to five times a week, once a day. I use social media sometimes but compared to what I see with other kids in my grade or in my age range, I wouldn’t say that I use it as much as like average”. Most of the participants expressed themselves to using social media like the average that Alexandra mentions, which is using social media whenever they get a chance outside of school or other activities. As explained by Maya, “when it’s kind of quiet, it’s straight to snapchat”.

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Though the participants’ formulations about how they felt about the notion of “wasting time” on social media varied, most said that it was a helpful way to waste time when they were bored. This was conveyed by Kevin who mentioned that sometimes when he’s with his friends they go on social media together, “mainly just when we’re bored or we’re having an argument and we mostly just scroll through people’s own Instagram posts, we don’t do that much”. In contrast, Alexandra states, when asked what social media is:

“In my opinion social media is kind of sometimes a waste of time because when I think of social media I think of people posting photos of themselves or sometimes people get bullied on social media too, but social media is also kind of good because you can talk with other people if you don’t have their iMessage or something”. This shows that some children do view aspects of social media as a waste of time, however wasting time did not include connecting with their friends. Ella on the other hand defends the notion of wasting time on social media when asked about what her parents say about social media, and instead demonstrated its various benefits:

“I don’t just sit on there because I want to waste my day away, obviously not, because I like to see new videos that people post on TikTok or I like to be inspired and see different things and yes, in a way it’s a waste of time but also in a way it helps me to learn new things and do more because if I didn’t have snapchat I probably wouldn’t be in as much contact as I am with my friends and I wouldn’t be up to date with what’s going on in the world”.

This suggests that there is an awareness that others may think of using social media as a waste of time, whereas most of the children referred to it as a leisure activity that offered diverse opportunities. This also refers to the notion of agency and how children are perhaps arguing against their parent’s views of social media being a waste of time as well as

acknowledging the needs to navigate restrictions on agency. Additionally, there is a

recognition of the liberties that social media can afford them. It was also mentioned that it’s a place where they can explore their interests and share things they have done, to learn and to be creative. Depending on how it was used, it was expressed to offer many ways to spend their time. In summary, the theme of social media being a place suggests that it is an important place for children to build and maintain friendships as well as to spend time as leisure. The idea of weighing the positive and negative experiences around social media was one the most talked about notions throughout the data. Though there were some questions that probed the discussion of positive and negative experiences, a lot was discussed by the children in these terms beyond being prompted.

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6.2. Positive experiences

The children often spoke about how they are aware that there could be negative aspects and experiences on social media even without the explicit questions around negative and positive aspects. More so, they seemed to express that they knew how to navigate potential negative aspects or risks and that overall there was more positive experiences. This was the most prominent theme recurring in the data. They named many of the concerns found in previous research about bullying, addiction, mental health, and privacy issues. It was acknowledged that they agree with their parents and others’ concerns, but they also expressed that they thought the positives were not as recognized nor understood by adults.

Ella pointed out that the app is neutral, stating that

“it’s not necessarily the app. The app can be a positive thing but it’s the people who are commenting the negative things on its so it’s not really anything to do with the app itself. It’s the people that are behind the screen commenting those types of things and saying those things. In reality it’s the people that need to change what they’re doing and it’s not the app”

This characterizes that the app as being neutral and that how people are offline is how they will use these apps online. This idea also takes the focus off of the app being understood through the binary distinction of good and bad and asks us to question human behavior rather than the technology, which is a notion that was not discussed in previous literature. Like most things that are a tool for us to use, they can be used in a myriad of ways. This is an interesting idea that only one of the children brought to light, while the others expressed most commonly that the positives outweighed the potential negatives.

The subthemes under positive experiences are learning and inspiration, fun and happiness, and perspective taking. They shared that they were able to express themselves, feel happy, and learn by getting inspiration and new ideas, which included learning more about their various interests. Perspective taking was talked about as social media offering a chance to see different perspectives from one’s own or new ways of understanding other’s experiences as well as issues going on in the world. Being able to use these platforms also entailed a sense of agency for them, as they reported having to maneuver using the app beyond their parent’s advice and rules about usage.

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6.2.1. Learning and Inspiration

Being able to share ideas, look up ideas, and follow accounts that nurture and inspire their own interests was conveyed by participants. Ella explains that “there’s a lot of really creative aspects on these different apps that you can see new things and learn different things”. She also adds in regard to learning that,

“I think that using social media can be a really good way for people to figure out who they are in a sense because I know that through social media I found new things that I like to do like baking and people just can really express who they are …I think that if you use social media in the proper way and if you aren’t negative and you find the right people on social media it can be very positive and can have a positive impact on your life and you can learn so much from it and it isn’t just something that people can bring each other down on it can also be something that where people start careers”

This highlights again that it is understood to be up to each user to use the apps in any

particular way. This also demonstrates the idea that the app can allow children to learn about, as well as to express, their interests and talents and inspire others to do the same.

It was evident through the data set that children are predominantly learning and sharing with their community of friends and in this way, they are open to learning from each other. Additionally, they expressed that they pursued learning more about their own interests and getting inspired, with drawing, with baking, with video games, and dancing. Kevin

mentioned learning bits of languages and Ella talked about learning sign language by following the account of a child who is hearing impaired. Learning and inspiration were mentioned as the positives as were having fun and feeling happy.

6.2.2. Fun and Happiness

These two ideas of fun and happiness were often mentioned together and were connected to various aspects of using social media. This included memes (which was mostly explained as a funny joke or idea), videos being more fun and engaging than photos, selfies being fun, and playing games.

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Albin expressed that on the positive side of using social media, “I do it because I think it’s fun to post the videos that I post, like if you’re sad and then you see some fun video, then you get happy again maybe”, indicating that he thinks it’s fun as well as sometimes facilitating happiness when you may be down. Maya shared that “I show my parents memes sometimes, cause it’s fun, it’s a joke but yeah not like anything else”, suggesting the fun aspect of sharing memes. Alexandra explains it’s fun to “get happy when I talk to my friends like if they make me laugh or something”, and that a positive thing about social media is “if they find

something funny to make them happy or if they get to like talk to people that make them feel happy”. Along with connecting and sharing funny things, Albin mentioned getting followers made him happy and that it also didn’t matter too much. He said, “I got happy but it doesn’t make any difference if I have that or not, it’s not important to have that I think”, suggesting that it feels good and can be positive, yet he does not describe it as an important aspect of the experience overall. The majority of participants agreed that they would still use social media to look at other things and perhaps less often if they didn’t have their friends on social media. This suggests that they enjoy looking up things and having fun outside of connecting with their friends.

Ella further explained about social media being a positive or negative experience in relation to how you use it, that “I think that if you use social media in the proper way and if you aren’t negative and you find the right people on social media it can be very positive and can have a positive impact on your life”. This notion of agency around how to navigate the use social media platforms seemed to be an important aspect of one’s experience of using social media. Being able to explore other aspects on social media such as learning from people they do not know, or about issues going on in the world as well as learning from their friends was discussed as another positive experience.

6.2.3. Perspective Taking

The idea of perspective taking was discussed as something that took place on social media. This was discussed about in relation to what is going on in the world and their friend’s worlds, and social justice issues. Ella acknowledged that amongst the multitude of information shared,

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“you can see people’s perspectives…there’s posts that get posted that are trying to bring awareness to certain things like maybe cancer research or different things that are going on in the world that maybe we should know about. Then there’s videos on TikTok of people bringing awareness to different things as well and talking about different situations that they’ve been through and how maybe their story can help others”.

Ella also added that “maybe I never looked at it in that way or I never really understood something or it’s like someone’s dying”. Here the notions are expressed that social media is a place to take on various outlooks on life and perhaps to experience empathy for other

people’s experiences, and that some of what is viewed makes it possible to expand beyond one’s own perceptions. This idea of perspective taking, and perhaps understanding better what people think and feel, stood out as something that was common, as a result of shared spaces and shared experiences through social media. It allows various stories and

circumstances to be circulated to a select or wide audience, that can enhance understanding of each other and what is happening in the world. This idea of perspective taking was also expressed through sharing ideas and bringing awareness to issues that matter to them, such as animal rights and climate change, which were the two most mentioned social justice issues. A few of the participants included that social media allowed you to share your outlook on these issues and to raise awareness as well as support. Alexandra explains that, “sometimes I look about global warming to see if I can help in a way”. Ella said similarly, “I’ll see things that you can post on your story to raise a dollar, so I’ll do those if it means helping towards having a better environment and world out there for everyone”. Again, showing that the intent of how these apps are used is central to the experience as well as its power to support important issues. The climate change topic as well as animal rights is what the participants expressed as making them to feel most emotional on Instagram as well as spreading

awareness. For example, Kevin mentioned social media as a place where he can learn about issues such as “animals and how they are being mistreated”. Along with learning about passionate causes or global issues, what was even more apparent in the data was that the children were much more open to taking on the perspectives of their friends and being more interested in the issues and topics that they shared with one another, compared to perspectives and information that they came across from other sources.

Maya explained that through her friends she learns about particular world issues important to them, “I have a lot of middle eastern friends so I get a lot of news from them, if a Muslim part of some country is being mistreated or something I get to know, like the Uighur in

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China”. She states that she does not look for world news, but rather “just news that are important to them [her friends]” is what she is taking in through social media. It was often stated that one must be careful on social media as a lot of the content was not necessarily true, which leads to some of the more negative experiences discussed.

6.3. Negative experiences

Subthemes related to negative experiences on social media include privacy and anonymity, bullying and bad feelings, and absence of social cues. These negative experiences were often mentioned in response to what their parents or teachers tell them about social media. The child participants also acknowledged that these are possibilities, though none of them mentioned explicitly being bullied or having bad feelings as a result of online experiences through these apps.

6.3.1 Privacy and Anonymity

The ideas of privacy and anonymity were mentioned in relation to possible negative

experiences as well as a way to avoid them. It was largely talked about that most of parents and teacher’s concerns were around privacy and not disclosing personal information, particularly to strangers. It was mentioned that the children agree with those concerns and that they keep this in mind while using social media. When building their social networks, it is usually through a common friend. For example, Ella explains “because they’re a friend I know through someone, so I don’t really see that as threatening to my safety”. Similarly, Maya shares that some children do actively talk to strangers on social media “my friend is trying to find a boyfriend through snapchat… she wants to have like an Australian or something nice… you find them on Instagram cause you can’t really search things on snapchat, you use them together”. Most did not talk to strangers. Albin explained that “you could get to know other people, but I don’t do that, I want to be on the safe side”. Therefore, though there can be some potential risks, it seems as though children mostly follow

precautions and heed the advice of their elders. Most of the children expressed that they are well aware that people can pretend to be just about anybody on social media, saying things like “100% you can be another person than in real life, well say in real life you’re a 40 year old man who lives in his mom’s basement, you can pretend to be a girl” or that one can

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present themselves in an edited online version as Maya said, “You can use a filter or you can just change your personality, it’s free game”. This idea of anything being possible on social media was something the children all spoke about. The importance of realizing a lot of things on there can be fake was expressed often. It was implied that a lot of what is found on social media is fake, including the children mentioning fake news. There was a lot of reference to COVID-19 news being shared through social media and also that most of the news was not to be trusted. For example,

“ then again you can’t always believe everything you see on social media because a lot of people post things that aren’t completely true so it’s very important that you know that what you are looking at is valid… you have to be careful what you actually learn on social media”, emphasized Ella.

Thomas expressed, “I think social media is maybe good to get informed, but some things are fake or not everything is true”, which again highlights the importance of questioning a lot of what is being seen on social media, as expressed by the participants. The ability to have a private account and choosing who to follow was mentioned as ways to avoid opening up oneself to strangers, misinformation, and potential negative experiences. The use of

anonymity was mentioned in regard to bullying in that it allows users to hide their identity

when engaging in such acts, which brings us to the next subtheme.

6.3.2. Bullying and bad feelings

The subthemes of bullying and bad feelings were often spoken about together in relation to the possible negative experiences had on social media. Ella elaborates about how anonymity can play a role in cyberbullying by sharing;

“there could be a lot of hate and rude comments that are put anonymously and not anonymous and can make jokes about people or people can like find a photo of someone and then send it to a group chat and start talking bad about that photo or talk bad about people or start problems with people over social media and it can really cause a person to be really sad and hurt”.

It is evident here that Ella describes the effects of bullying as serious, as did the other participants. Kevin explained that potential negative impacts were that “it might make some children really conscious about how they look and how the public perceives them and doesn’t

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really let them be themselves all the time”. This could imply that there is a lot of pressure and self-criticism that can impact children on social media. One other aspect mentioned that could be related to bad feelings was mentioned by Alexandra, who said “if they’re not prepared to see information like about something that could scare them”, which

acknowledges not always being able to filter through what is being sent around. In terms of bad feelings, the potential impacts that bullying could have on self-esteem was the major concern mentioned followed by the possible addictive aspects of social media.

Thomas stated about social media screen time can be addictive; “It’s on the screen, it’s a negative impact but the children can be addicted to it so I think that can more negative than positive”. Ella stated that she was addicted, “I guess it would all depend [if she would use social media if her friends didn’t], because I would say in a way I am sort of addicted to being on social media like I will spend a lot of my time on it and it’s probably not a healthy amount like I should be doing other things”. Similarly, Albin said “you get addicted, that’s the way it is”. Though this can be interpreted as an issue, it seemed to be more understood as something that is part of a normalized childhood nowadays. Maya relatedly said, “many say you get addicted it’s just like an easy way to do something, you don’t have to think”. She also explained that if there were no social media children would find another way to pass their time in a similar manner, where it could be looked at as a waste or perhaps addictive.

When asking the children how they thought social media could be improved or enhanced in anyway, most of the reflections were based around finding ways to get rid of bullying. Another aspect that was mentioned by several children, which could imply that they find it negative, was to get rid of showing the number of followers and likes. Kevin explained, “maybe we could make it less based on the amount of followers and likes you get, less about that and more just about sharing your life with other people, speaking with them and having a great time”. Albin similarly shared that it could be better “not see how many likes you get so that you can get less addicted and maybe there’s a limit that you can look at it”. This suggests that there is an awareness around how amounts of liked and followers could have an impact on them somewhat negatively, yet they did not mention it as negatives as such, but rather as ideas of how social media could improve.

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It was expressed that the main difference with interacting offline is that it allowed more social cues and spontaneous reactions. When asked if there was a difference in online interactions versus in person, Alexandra shared that “I think in real life you get to see their facial expressions”. Similarly, Ella explained that the difference is “someone’s emotion ….so you can’t tell if they’re being sarcastic or if they’re actually upset or if they’re mad or

anything and you can’t see their body language or anything like that so um I find that in person it’s a lot more real”. So, the children point to a difference in how they experience interactions and that there can be a more genuine perception of how someone feels offline. Albin explained that you can get to know people better in real life because you know more about people in real person, whereas online people can have fake identities. Kevin similarly shared that “in real life you have a closer connection” than through interactions on the phone. Maya pointed out that you would not express yourself the same way in real person since through social media you comment on people’s picture using a different language such as “say you post a picture or you post a selfie, the only comments you get are the first emoji or heart emoji or ‘good looking’ or ‘aw, cute’… so you don’t say that in real life”. Albin pointed out that you would not necessarily share the same kind of information in real life whereas on social media you might post a picture of a restaurant you went to. This could insinuate that some of the connections online do not feel genuine. Thomas reflected that the spontaneity of interacting in person is removed when communicating online; “I think it’s different because you don’t talk the same on a phone and in person because on a phone you send a message and in real life you talk and the person answers just now”. This highlights how in person there is no time to craft a response in the way that communicating through a phone or social media affords.

When asked what they would do without social media, some of the children expressed that there would be more meaningful conversations and perhaps you would have to “overcome the silent part and maybe get better at socializing”, as explained by Maya. Kevin’s thoughts went in another direction, as he said that without social media children would be less connected. This could be interpreted as social media offering more chances for connection even though it may not be as meaningful, but also that these connections made in person are maintained more easily with social media.

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The negative aspects acknowledged by participants largely reiterated much of what the previous research concludes about the downsides of social media. Alternatively, there was more expressed in this study around positive experiences the children have on social media, which should also be a part of the larger discussion. It was clear that they have a very specific way of using social media.

6.4. A particular peer culture

The theme of a particular peer culture stood out in the data set as many of the children mentioned the unspoken ways in which they used social media, based on a set of implicit norms. All of the participants mentioned that they do not talk about how they use social media with their friends other than three occasions. Firstly, if someone perhaps get a lot of likes on a photo, for example Kevin mentioned they do not talk about it often, saying; “No, not really, sometimes certain friends will be like ‘oh my god Kevin, this photo just got like 50 likes or 100 likes or something’ and their excited but not that often”. Secondly, if someone has an exceptional number of followers as Albin said,

“I don’t think we speak about social media either I think, maybe if you have seen some fun video you would speak about that, but I don’t think we speak about it often. I think there were some of my friends who got jealous because I got ‘famous’ on TikTok because I have 2000 followers and they got a little bit jealous or something”. Thirdly, if they get low ratings on snapchat for example because they do not use it and are not around average, as Maya explained that “ I guess it’s only if someone’s like differentiating from the usual then you talk about it” as her friend was impressed with her high snap score as she herself had a low one because she barely used the app. Other than that, all of the norms around how to use the various apps and the implied meanings of certain behaviors were not talked about amongst users and friends. Ella explained that social media is used in the same way among her friends; “there is a way to use it but I feel like in a certain way we all use it the same, we all use it for the same purpose…I don’t think that really any of my friends have a very different way of using social media than I do”. Other than that, all of the norms around how to use the various apps and the implied meanings of certain behaviors were not talked about amongst users and friends. On Snapchat there was a particular set of rules that Maya described well;

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“if you’re not really friends or kinda of friends then it’s usually [a photo of] the roof, it’s like good friends is your face, then kind of friends is this (points to part of the face or hair and shoulder) and then you know each other but you’re not really friends then it’s the roof, like I don’t like you it’s the roof, I really don’t like you it’s like a blank picture or something blurry. You can also just ignore someone and don’t respond. The worst is if they don’t even open it, they just let it be”.

This way of interacting, through sending certain photos seemed to hold an established and understood set of meanings. These sorts of unspoken norms and codes of conduct seemed to be commonly expressed and widespread. The importance of staying quite active, on Snapchat in particular, to keep definite scores was part of this culture. This inherently means

maintaining high if not constant interaction through sharing photos with friends on there. These various scores were further coded (in the app) into certain meanings, such as your best friend list that is your most contacted people that is symbolically ascribed particular emojis. A suggested freedom was implicitly stated in how they used these apps as they shared that they could communicate with more ease since it was their own space without adult’s

interference. Furthermore, it was clear that all the participants who used social media wanted to connect with their friends and those in their age group rather than with their family and parents. For example, Maya expressed that “my mom follows me, but I would like her not to. I don’t talk to my family on social media and most people don’t do that”. This was a view commonly expressed by most participants, that this place is predominantly for connecting with their peers, though they are willing to show their parents funny things like memes that they find once in a while. The way they preferred to use social media was by engaging with and spending time with their friends.

It seemed as though perhaps social pressure online intensified with age as older child participants such as Maya concluded by saying that “you can’t be boring” and shared more notions related to pressure, for example, “ on snapchat… you send pictures and they disappear, it doesn’t have to be as good as text or when you talk face to face” or that it’s possible for people to compare their lives to others on social media. She also was the only one who mentioned that she felt you had to have social media, stating that “ I think you have to have social media today, like if you don’t have snapchat you’re weird and Instagram also… so if you want to have friends or be popular I think you should have social media and that’s the downside and I guess the upside”. The younger children explained that a few of their friends did not use social media because their parents did not want them to and that it was not a big deal. Perhaps there are varying peer cultures dependent on age, though there

“It’s not necessarily the app, the app can be a positive thing” : children’s perspectives on their own social media use.