Youth Matters

Description of Activity

Presented report findings from social networking research: There are Two Sides to Every Story. See abstract below This paper reports the findings from the second stage of a three part research project carried out with young people in two schools and a youth organisation in Sussex, the United Kingdom. This research project responds to concerns by teachers and youth workers about a perceived increase in cyberbullying incidents on social networking media. Building on findings in the first stage, this second stage used a series of semi-structured focus groups and scenario analyses to explore young people’s communications in a range of behaviours and relationships on eight prominent social media platforms. The findings show that social networking media provide young people with opportunity to manage simultaneously different categories of relationships on the media available. Behaviours maintain tension between individualism and communitarianism – where each young person is responsible for i) maintaining their self-narrative; and ii) ensuring their and others’ actions do not restrict peers attaining this goal. Further, the findings challenge current trends towards increased online surveillance and zero tolerance policies. The young people favour interventions with trusted adults in safe spaces offline, which support self-governance and personal agency when they encounter relationship issues online.

Period	8 Jun 2016 → 9 Jun 2016
Event type	Conference
Location	Newcastle, United KingdomShow on map