BIO

My name is Megan and I am local to Tallahassee, Florida. My interests involve research in child psychology as well as career goals working with children. Currently, I am assisting Dr. Dennen in research on adolescent social media use habits. In the future, my goal is to gain entrance into a counseling doctoral program so I can continue psychological work with children.

Teens, Teachers, and Online Information

Abstract

With social media growing in popularity, the question of how teenagers interpret information they see online comes into play. How teens interpret online information, and how their teachers facilitate and enhance this online learning is the focus of this study. Previous studies have researched teens’ choices on which social media platform they rely on the most to obtain news. However, results are vague, and little research has been done to take in-depth approaches as to why teenagers gravitate towards a “media choice.” Research studies have made it a point to determine the top social media sites used by teens, and the main devices they use to access these social media sites. Keeping this in mind, this research fails to determine how teens use this information in their daily lives, especially when they are in school. The ongoing study assesses how teens interpret online information and current events. Interviews were conducted in which teen participants describe their top social media platforms, and the information they encounter on these platforms. Data is collected through a Qualtrics survey for a week in which participants submit screenshot artifacts from their media encounters, as well as a video diary in which they describe their media usage and encounters for the week. This is an ongoing study, so the anticipated findings are that teens encounter a variety of information online, but may not fact check, research further, or talk about these issues with their teachers in school.

Keywords: Social Media, Teens, Teachers, Online Information