The problem space
With the rise of everyday social media usage, parents track their teenagers more than ever.
As a generation that grew up with this technology using social media is simply a part of daily life.
However, we aimed to uncover the parental perspective of how social media and mediation plays into the parent-teen relationship.
Secondary research
Teenagers and parents have different understandings of social media’s role in their lives, which often results in tensions in their relationship.
Tension: Secrecy
Teens tend to behave rebelliously (ex: secretly using their phone in bed when parents limit their time).
Care: Motivations
Parents worry about the digital footprint teens may leave on the internet
Autonomy: Identity
Social media encourages teens to explore their sense of identity and form social relationships
Secondary research
Defining key terms: Mediation strategies
Active Mediation
Mediation that encourages open discussions, typically about critical thinking and safe practices for social media use.
Restrictive Mediation
Mediation that involves monitoring and setting limits on teen’s media activities, typically through screen time apps.
Research question
What tensions exist between the parent's care-driven mediation and teen's personal autonomy of social media?
Interviews
Including both parents and teens in the conversation.
Most research studies were one-sided conversations with parents or teens. So, we wanted to understand both of their perspectives to properly acknowledge tensions/behaviors with both sides of the conversation.
Insights
Our five main insights highlighted a difference in understanding in how social media supplements their lifestyle.
Ideation
We ideated 20 concepts to respond to our insights.
It’s important to note that our speculative concepts were created to invoke a response for interviewees, rather than create a solution.
Concept feedback
Revisiting our interviewees with polished concepts
In the interview, we made sure to differentiate our speculative and earnest designs.
Final concepts + workbook
Presenting, our 48-page workbook documenting our research findings!
To document how far we’ve come, however, we’ve compiled a workbook that goes into our research more in-depth. I encourage you to check it out here!
Reflections + takeaways
Difficult research bears rewarding results!
It’s extremely hard to remove social media and technology altogether. So, it follows that striking a balance, satisfying both sides, is perhaps the compromise in the parent-teen dynamic (while keeping social media in the relationship). In the end, it’s simply not possible to conclude this study without mentioning a common ground.
While there was no snazzy eye catching final solution attached to this research question, this research study has been extremely fulfilling. Research is its own fascinating field of its own, and it was great to get a taste of it. Special thanks to Audrey Desjardins for being a mentor in this study, and to Ava, Steve, and Mike for being great teammates!
