Young people's perspectives and lived experiences of using social media

Research approach: foregrounding young people’s voices

The project received ethics approval in May 2025 and was externally advised on by Dr Tamara Galoyan at MIT. It uses a qualitative methodology, with initial data collected through focus groups in partner schools. These focus groups were designed to feel conversational and safe, allowing young people to talk openly about their online lives without fear of adult judgement or intervention.

This approach is intentional. Research with young people has repeatedly shown that when adults genuinely listen, rather than assume, richer and more honest accounts emerge (Cook-Sather, 2006; Lundy, 2007). The aim here is not to measure or diagnose behaviour, but to understand how social media fits into young people’s social worlds, relationships, and sense of self.

What young people told us

FOMO, but not in the way adults imagine

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) came up frequently, which aligns with existing research linking constant connectivity to anxiety and social comparison (Przybylski et al., 2013). However, young people did not necessarily frame FOMO as a crisis. Instead, it was described as something normal, shared, and often managed collectively.

When problems arise online, young people overwhelmingly turn to their peers rather than to adults. Many felt that adults overreact, misunderstand social media, or simply do not listen. This reinforces what other researchers have found about the intergenerational gap in digital understanding (Livingstone & Blum-Ross, 2020). For these participants, friends are the first line of emotional support and sense-making.

“We know the risks”

A strong and consistent message from participants was that they believe they are fully aware of the dangers of social media. This directly challenges the assumption that young people are naïve or careless online. Their comments reflect research showing that young people often have a sophisticated understanding of privacy, risk, and reputation, even if their practices do not always look ‘safe’ to adults (Stoilova et al., 2021).

Social media was most often described in very practical terms: entertainment, chatting, and socialising. Several young people commented that they do not take it as seriously as adults think they do. This disconnect between adult concern and young people’s everyday experiences is one of the most striking findings of the study.

Emotion, communication, and identity

For many participants, social media acts as a kind of emotional camouflage. It can feel easier to communicate digitally than face to face, particularly when dealing with difficult feelings. This supports existing work on digitally mediated communication as a tool for emotional regulation during adolescence (Valkenburg & Peter, 2011).

An unexpected outcome of the research was the way participation itself appeared to shift some young people’s sense of identity. Being asked for their views, and being taken seriously as contributors to knowledge, surprised teachers and altered classroom dynamics. This reflects the transformative potential of student voice work, where young people begin to see themselves differently when their experiences are valued (Mitra, 2004).

“We’ll grow out of it”

Many young people spoke about social media as something tied to a particular stage of life. They expected their use to change as they grew older, entered the workforce, and took on more responsibilities. This future-oriented perspective challenges deterministic narratives around digital addiction and suggests that young people see social media as temporary and contextual, rather than all-consuming.

Flipping the narrative

The next phase of this project explicitly focuses on flipping the narrative. Drawing on Transactional Analysis (Berne, 1964), adult–young person conversations about social media often operate within Parent–Child dynamics, where adults instruct, warn, or control. This research asks what happens when we shift toward Adult–Adult relationships instead. Will we get relationships based on trust, dialogue, and mutual respect?

This idea connects to what I like to describe as a digital reversal: young people reclaiming ownership of knowledge from traditional authorities such as the printing press, the curriculum, and even the teacher. In digital spaces, young people are often already experts. The challenge for education is learning how to work with that expertise rather than dismissing it.

Curriculum implications and ethics

One of the key aims of this research is to inform curriculum design. Rather than treating social media as a problem to be managed, the project is working toward a socially and emotionally informed framework that is grounded in young people’s lived experiences. This aligns with broader calls for digital wellbeing education that goes beyond risk and restriction, and instead supports critical thinking, emotional literacy, and relational understanding (OECD, 2021).

Ethics remain central throughout this work. Positioning young people as co-constructors of knowledge requires constant attention to power, consent, and representation. Listening to young people is not a one-off act; it is an ongoing responsibility.

This research challenges dominant adult-centric narratives about young people and social media. When young people are listened to, a far more nuanced picture emerges - one that includes awareness, humour, pragmatism, emotional complexity, and agency. Treating young people as partners in knowledge production does not just improve research quality; it has the potential to transform educational practice.

If we are serious about digital transformation in education, then young people cannot simply be the subject of that transformation. They must be central to shaping it.

References

Berne, E. (1964). Games People Play. New York: Grove Press.

boyd, d. (2014). It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Cook-Sather, A. (2006). Sound, presence, and power: “Student voice” in educational research and reform. Curriculum Inquiry, 36(4), 359–390.

Livingstone, S. (2019). Audiences in an age of datafication: Critical questions for media research. Television & New Media, 20(2), 170–183.

Livingstone, S., & Blum-Ross, A. (2020). Parenting for a Digital Future. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Lundy, L. (2007). “Voice” is not enough: Conceptualising Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. British Educational Research Journal, 33(6), 927–942.

Mitra, D. (2004). The significance of students: Can increasing “student voice” in schools lead to gains in youth development? Teachers College Record, 106(4), 651–688.

OECD. (2021). Beyond academic learning: First results from the Survey of Social and Emotional Skills. Paris: OECD Publishing.

Przybylski, A. K., Murayama, K., DeHaan, C. R., & Gladwell, V. (2013). Motivational, emotional, and behavioral correlates of fear of missing out. Computers in Human Behavior, 29(4), 1841–1848.

Stoilova, M., Livingstone, S., & Kardefelt-Winther, D. (2021). Global perspectives on children’s digital rights. New Media & Society, 23(11), 3354–3372.

Valkenburg, P. M., & Peter, J. (2011). Online communication among adolescents: An integrated model of its attraction, opportunities, and risks. Journal of Adolescent Health, 48(2), 121–127.