How would I have responded to this survey 10 years ago, I wonder?
I was 17, in student government, debating whether our campus should ban YikYak after a spate of vile posts. Another student said no: we were mature enough to handle it. I said yes: the app was doing real harm. The majority were in favor of banning the app, and we asked the school to contact YikYak and put up a geofence.
Looking back, this seems like a rare example of young people coming together to discuss social media's place in their lives in a structured, meaningful way. Is there a way to facilitate more collective discussion -- and decisionmaking -- like this?
Re #4: Zuckerberg testified last week that the amount of time people see their friends’ stuff off social media is low and dropping.. that time spent on a user’s friends’ content on IG is only 7 percent!
Social networking turned into social media, but we still assume/hope/wish that the networking piece is there.
I'm a huge fan of Pew (and Techno Sapiens!), but this particular survey made me a little grumpy.
For instance, 41% of teens say that social media has "neither a positive nor negative effect" on people their age?
"Neither" might not be the right term here. I think most teens recognize that social media has both positive and negative effects. They're not given the chance to express that on this survey item...so....maybe we've missed something about how they think?
(A small detail, but important IMO given that so much other data suggests that the actual effects of social media are mixed, but some experts are stressing the harmful ones.)
I agree it’s odd phrasing. My firm often does focus groups for marketing, and when we ask people to review messages or statements, we include as a choice “neither agree nor disagree.” Perhaps that’s how it was meant?
What made me grumpy was that for teens, bullying and pressure/expectations were almost has high as social media as a threat to mental health. But I’d argue that bullying and high expectations and pressure are often found ON social media. So what else is it about the platform (vs. behaviors) that’s making it a threat?
How would I have responded to this survey 10 years ago, I wonder?
I was 17, in student government, debating whether our campus should ban YikYak after a spate of vile posts. Another student said no: we were mature enough to handle it. I said yes: the app was doing real harm. The majority were in favor of banning the app, and we asked the school to contact YikYak and put up a geofence.
Looking back, this seems like a rare example of young people coming together to discuss social media's place in their lives in a structured, meaningful way. Is there a way to facilitate more collective discussion -- and decisionmaking -- like this?
Re #4: Zuckerberg testified last week that the amount of time people see their friends’ stuff off social media is low and dropping.. that time spent on a user’s friends’ content on IG is only 7 percent!
Social networking turned into social media, but we still assume/hope/wish that the networking piece is there.
I'm a huge fan of Pew (and Techno Sapiens!), but this particular survey made me a little grumpy.
For instance, 41% of teens say that social media has "neither a positive nor negative effect" on people their age?
"Neither" might not be the right term here. I think most teens recognize that social media has both positive and negative effects. They're not given the chance to express that on this survey item...so....maybe we've missed something about how they think?
(A small detail, but important IMO given that so much other data suggests that the actual effects of social media are mixed, but some experts are stressing the harmful ones.)
I agree it’s odd phrasing. My firm often does focus groups for marketing, and when we ask people to review messages or statements, we include as a choice “neither agree nor disagree.” Perhaps that’s how it was meant?
What made me grumpy was that for teens, bullying and pressure/expectations were almost has high as social media as a threat to mental health. But I’d argue that bullying and high expectations and pressure are often found ON social media. So what else is it about the platform (vs. behaviors) that’s making it a threat?