Qualitative Research on Youths’ Social Media Use: A review ...

1 Middle Grades ReviewVolume 4|Issue 2 Article 4 September 2018 Qualitative Research on Youths Social Media Use: Areview of the literatureMardi SchmeichelUniversity of Georgia, E. HughesUniversity of Georgia, KutnerUniversity of Georgia, this and additional works at: of theEducation CommonsThis Research is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Education and Social Services at ScholarWorks @ UVM. It has beenaccepted for inclusion in Middle Grades review by an authorized editor of ScholarWorks @ UVM.

2 For more information, please CitationSchmeichel, Mardi; Hughes, Hilary E.; and Kutner, Mel (2018) " Qualitative Research on Youths Social Media Use: A review of theliterature,"Middle Grades review : Vol. 4 : Iss. 2 , Article at: Qualitative Research on Youths Social Media Use: A review of the Literature Mardi Schmeichel, University of Georgia Hilary E. Hughes, University of Georgia Mel Kutner, University of Georgia Abstract In this article we explore how educational researchers report empirical Qualitative Research about young people s Social Media use.

3 We frame the overall study with an understanding that Social Media sites contribute to the production of neoliberal subjects, and we draw on Foucauldian discourse theories and the understanding that how researchers explain topics and concepts produces particular ways of thinking about the world while excluding others. Findings include that: 1) there is an absence of attention to the structure and function of Social Media platforms; 2) adolescents are positioned in problematic, developmental ways; and 3) the over-representation of girls and young women in these studies contributes to the feminization of problems on Social Media .

4 We conclude by calling for future Research that can serve as a robust resource for exploring adolescents Social Media use in more productive, nuanced ways. INTRODUCTION The life of Social Media platforms has been relatively short, but attention to this domain of technology and its impact on youth and youth culture is at the forefront of scholars Research agendas across multiple disciplines. Additionally, there has been a constant stream of advice, concern, and reporting about youths Social Media practices in popular culture discourses ( , Dunkley, 2017; Heitner, 2017; Mastroianni, 2016; Whitson, 2017).

5 Based on findings from two of the authors previous work on Social Media (Author 1, Author 2), we began preparing for a Qualitative study to explore how and why youth engage with Social Media and the consequences of those practices for youth and for society. The Research presented in this article germinated from our initial literature review of the existing Research on young people s Social Media use. We were surprised both by what we found, and even more, what we did not find in the literature. We realized from the start, for example, that there were considerably more quantitative Research studies than Qualitative studies.

6 Perhaps more importantly, we found that within the Qualitative Research literature, there was not a coherent pattern in the way researchers described adolescents Social Media use. By this we mean that there was not a consistent set of behaviors, conditions, or contexts described in these studies. The concept of what Social Media use is was operationalized in a wide variety of ways, and perhaps as a result, the study designs and the Social Media behaviors captured and analyzed varied widely. Further, the Social Media literature citations that authors used to situate the studies were inconsistent, in the sense that they did not trace back to a set of foundational texts.

7 Overall, the Qualitative literature in which the studies were grounded reflected a disparate set of ideas, purposes, and theories. While a great deal of attention is paid to youths engagement with popular Media , we wondered what the pattern of divergent studies we found might mean for other academics and educators who turn to Research to explore and understand this phenomenon. These concerns led us to postpone our current study in order to first conduct an analytical review of the Qualitative Research that attends to youths Social Media use.

8 After describing our theoretical framework and methodological processes below, we present three salient findings from our analysis that reflect the ways in which the neoliberal framing of youth and a constrained understanding of Social Media are reproduced through this literature. We then discuss suggested considerations for future Research focusing on youths Social Media use. 1 Schmeichel et al.: Qualitative Research on Youths' Social Media UsePublished by ScholarWorks @ UVM, 2018 Theoretical Frameworks We frame the overall study with an understanding that Social Media sites contribute to the production of neoliberal subjects.

9 This critical perspective of Social Media as a technology of neoliberalism relies heavily on Media studies theorists ( , Gill, 2007, 2008, 2016; McRobbie, 2009) who foreground neoliberalism as a factor shaping Media uses. Within this work, neoliberalism is understood as a discursive and material force that extends the logic of the market to aspects of Social life previously not subjected to economic rationales (Foucault, 2008). In other words, entrepreneurial motivations are understood to extend to all conduct and interpellate individuals as entrepreneurial actors in every sphere of life (Brown, 2005, p.)

10 42). In this sense, a wide variety of human behavior, including Social Media use, is seen to be driven by interests and rationales informed by economic concepts, like value , efficiency , and branding. Research drawing on analyses of the intersection of neoliberalism and Social Media offers valuable tools to examine the causes and consequences of the introduction and explosion of Social Media technologies over the last several decades. Within this larger neoliberal framing of the study, we also drew on Foucauldian discourse theories and the understanding that how researchers explain topics and concepts produces particular ways of thinking about the world while excluding others.