PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA Peer
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PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA Peer Experiences via Social Media Jacqueline Nesi1,2, Rebecca Dredge3, Anne J. Maheux4, Savannah R. Roberts4, Kara A. Fox5, & Sophia Choukas-Bradley4 1Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, Dept. of Psychiatry & Human Behavior; [email protected]; ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5869-6360 2Bradley/Hasbro Research Center, Rhode Island Hospital 3Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, School for Mass Communication Research 4University of Delaware, Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences 5University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Department of Psychology and Neuroscience Author Note, July 7, 2021: This chapter has been accepted for publication in the Encyclopedia of Child and Adolescent Health, published by Elsevier. Ó 2021. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Acknowledgements. Jacqueline Nesi is supported by grants from National Institute of Mental Health (K23-MH122669) and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (PDF-010517). Rebecca Dredge is supported by the FWO – Flanders (12X4520N). Anne J. Maheux is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (1940700). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NIMH, AFSP, or NSF. PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 2 Synopsis The transformation framework (Nesi et al., 2018a, 2018b) describes the ways in which the features of social media shape adolescents’ peer experiences. In the current chapter, we build on this work in three ways. First, we expand on our previous conceptualization to consider the role of algorithms as a key feature of social media. Second, we offer an updated review of the ways in which social media transforms a range of peer experiences, including peer status, peer influence, victimization, and other interpersonal behaviors and skills. Finally, we describe the translational implications of the transformation framework for adolescents’ educators, providers, and parents. Keywords: Adolescents, Co-Rumination, Cybervictimization, Digital Media, Online, Peer Influence, Peer Relationships, Peer Status, Reassurance-Seeking, Social Comparison, Social Competence, Social Media PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 3 Peer Experiences via Social Media Decades of research support the critical role of peer relationships in youths’ development (Bukowski et al., 2018). In recent years, however, there has been a seismic shift in the landscape of adolescents’ peer relationships. The advent of social media has profoundly reshaped youths’ social worlds, with social media platforms now representing a primary context in which peer experiences occur. Nearly 97% of youth report using some form of social media, with 70% reporting that they use social media multiple times per day (Anderson & Jiang, 2018; Rideout & Robb, 2018). It is impossible to understand the nature of youths’ peer interactions without considering the role of social media. Previously, we proposed a transformation framework (Nesi et al., 2018a, 2018b), arguing that the unique features of the social media context are transforming adolescents’ peer experiences. We suggested that the social media context directly shapes the ways that youth interact, creating new and different experiences online. In the current chapter, we build on this initial work in three ways. First, we expand on our previous conceptualization of social media to consider a new feature: that social media is algorithmic. Second, we consider the ways in which social media transforms a number of peer experiences, providing an updated review of the rapidly expanding literature in these areas, focusing on exemplary studies. Third, we describe the translational implications of the transformation framework. We argue that by understanding the ways in which peer experiences are shaped by the social media environment, we can better support youth in using social media in healthy and effective ways. Due to the rapidly evolving ecosystem of digital tools, the definition of “social media” has required frequent revision and adaptation over time. Drawing on prior conceptualizations of PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 4 social media, and aiming to account for future iterations of social media, Carr and Hayes, 2015 have recently offered a broad, “atemporal” definition: Social media are Internet-based channels that allow users to opportunistically interact and selectively self-present, either in real-time or asynchronously, with both broad and narrow audiences who derive value from user-generated content and the perception of interaction with others. (p. 50) An important distinction between this definition and other slightly more general definitions (e.g., “digital technologies that allow users to connect, interact, produce, and share content”; Lewis, 2009) is the provision that interaction can occur “with both broad and narrow audiences.” Although Carr and Hayes (2015) suggest that this might preclude such tools as text messaging and e-mail, we argue that in some cases – particularly for adolescents – such messaging can occur with a broad audience. “Group chats,” or group messaging threads containing three or more people, are a key component of many adolescents’ social lives, delineating cliques and in some cases, creating opportunities for exclusion. For purposes of the current chapter, we rely on Carr and Hayes’ (2015) definition, focusing on platforms that have been the emphasis of both public debate and the majority of contemporary peer relations scholarship on “social media” (e.g., Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok, Twitter). However, in cases where relevant, we also consider messaging tools, such as text messaging and WhatsApp. Note that the goal of this chapter is not to provide a comprehensive or systematic review of the literature on adolescent social media use and peer experiences. Rather, our goal is to expand and build upon our prior transformation framework, highlighting key studies in support of this effort. The majority of our discussion focuses on adolescents, broadly defined to include youth between the ages of roughly 11 and 18; thus, we use the term “youth” in this chapter, we are referring to adolescents, broadly defined, except where otherwise specified. Adolescence represents a critical period for the examination of peer relations via social media: during this PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 5 developmental stage, youth become increasingly invested in their relationships with peers, showing heightened sensitivity to social evaluation and establishing more complex and intimate relationships (Brown & Larson, 2009; Parker et al., 2015; Steinberg, 2005). It is also the period when many youth begin using social media regularly (Rideout & Robb, 2019). An Updated Transformation Framework In our original theoretical review (Nesi et al., 2018a, 2018b), we offered a framework for understanding the role of social media in adolescents’ peer experiences. Drawing on multidisciplinary scholarship across the fields of organizational and developmental psychology, computer-mediated communication, and media effects (e.g., boyd, 2010; McFarland & Ployhart, 2015; Subrahmanyam & Smahel, 2011), we argued that social media represents a distinct interpersonal context. Furthermore, in line with ‘affordances’ approaches (e.g., boyd, 2010; Moreno & Uhls, 2019), we suggested that this context is composed of a number of unique features, and that these features shape youths’ peer experiences as they occur online. As noted by prior social media theories (i.e., co-construction models; Subrahmanyam et al., 2006; Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, 2008), adolescents actively construct their media environments to navigate the same developmental tasks that have always been central for youth in this developmental period – e.g., establishing intimate relationships, building a cohesive identity, navigating independence from adult figures. However, we suggest that the features comprising this new social context actually transform adolescents’ peer experiences in important ways, including by changing the frequency or amplifying the intensity of interactions, altering the qualitative nature of experiences, and creating new opportunities for compensatory behaviors (i.e., those that would have been possible but unlikely offline) and entirely novel behaviors (i.e., those that would have been impossible offline). Through a review of prior scholarship across PEER EXPERIENCES VIA SOCIAL MEDIA 6 disciplines, we described seven features of social media that shape adolescents’ experiences in this context. We noted that social media, in comparison to traditional, in-person interactions, tended to be more: public, permanent, asynchronous, available, absent of cues, quantifiable, and visual (see Table 1). Since our original conceptualization, social media has continued to increase in number, complexity, and reach. Along with this growth has come heightened controversy over the many challenges inherent to sites that reach billions of users everyday: concerns about effects on adolescents’ mental health, the spread of misinformation that has societal impacts on everything from elections to vaccine uptake, exposure to problematic or dangerous content, and design “hacks” that keep youth engaged, or even addicted, for hours at a time. As these challenges reach the forefront of both scholarly and public conversation, the social media algorithms