Mapping the Design Space for Youth Social Media: A Framework Centered on Friendship Building

2026-06-15

AI Summary

Existing social media platforms for adolescents inadequately support their developmental needs in friendship formation, particularly regarding trust, belonging, and identity expression. This study addresses this gap by conducting a qualitative meta-analysis of participatory research involving adolescents across multiple countries, translating interpersonal development theory into actionable design principles for the first time. The work proposes a friendship-centered social media design framework grounded in three core pillars: social understanding, sense of place, and identity coherence. Through co-design activities, case studies, and the deployment of prototype systems such as *WhoamI Today*, the research empirically validates key elements of the framework with 99 adolescents in the United States and South Korea. Findings offer both an evidence-based foundation and a systematic design roadmap for developing platforms that meaningfully support adolescent socio-emotional growth.

Abstract

This dissertation develops a design framework for friendship-supportive youth social media. I conducted a qualitative meta-analysis across my formative, case-study, and co-design work with teens and young adults, synthesizing recurring design themes into three pillars: social understanding (legible norms, intentions, trust, reciprocity, and accountability), placeness (spatial and embodied affordances that make online interaction feel inhabitable), and identity alignment (authentic expression that remains current, plural, and interpretable). The framework is grounded in interpersonal, developmental, and sociotechnical theory, but its contribution is design-oriented: it translates broader accounts of friendship and social development into the specific ways social media platforms can shape youth friendship building. I initially validate parts of this framework through WhoamI Today (WIT), a platform deployed with 99 youth across the United States and Korea. My proposed work extends this validation through a follow-up deployment while refining the framework as a roadmap for cumulative design research on youth social media.

Problem

• youth social media
• friendship building
• design framework
• social understanding
• identity alignment

Innovation

• friendship-supportive design
• social understanding
• placeness
• identity alignment
• youth social media