Assistant Professor of Pediatrics University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Madison, Wisconsin, United States
Background: Adolescents frequently use social media, with 46% reporting being online almost constantly. Researchers have called for study methodology with densely phenotyped observations of behavior rather than self-reported screen time when studying youth social media effects. Adolescents’ willingness to participate in such research may be limited by concerns about privacy, which are often present in public discourse about social media data mining. Objective: To characterize the attitudes of adolescents regarding participation in social media research. Design/Methods: Low-income, Midwestern youth (n=142) aged 13-15 were recruited from March 2019 - February 2021 to participate in a study of social media behavior. Parental consent and youth assent were given for the study team to follow youth on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram accounts, including private accounts, for 2 years. Study staff passively observed participants’ content and interactions and took observational field notes. Participants were contacted every 6 months to update social media account information. About 18 months into the study, participants (n=120) completed survey items regarding motivations, satisfaction, and comfort regarding participation and willingness to share social media data in future research. Descriptive statistics were calculated using REDCap software. Results: At enrollment, mean age was 13.6 years with 51.4% identified as female, 47.1% White, and 92.2% non-Hispanic. Nearly all participants (95%) rated their overall experience in the study as positive or very positive. Motivations for participation included caregiver encouragement (46%), positive past research experience (38%), helping others (37%), money (36%), the research institution’s reputation (25%), and interest in social media (17%). About 4% stated they felt uncomfortable with the research team following them on social media, and 2.5% felt the study was an invasion of their privacy. Respondents indicated that they would be willing to share their Instagram (67%), Facebook (62%), TikTok (42%), or Snapchat profiles (35%), YouTube history (22%), direct messages on social media (10%), or all of their phone data (17%) in future research.
Conclusion(s): We found that the general level of participant comfort and engagement was high and perception of privacy invasion was low with direct observation of adolescent social media content. However, participants had mixed willingness to share specific social media-related data in the future. Future qualitative research should explore specific concerns about sharing social media data in both research-experienced and research-naive youth.
