Problem Space Attunement in Youth Social Media Design

2026-05-07

AI Summary

Mainstream social media platforms often fail to adequately support adolescents’ needs for relationship building, identity development, and community participation. To address this gap, this study engages youth in collective design exploration grounded in their own relational needs, employing speculative scenarios, an asynchronous Discord-based collaborative community, and a large language model–powered self-anchored simulation sandbox. The project identifies and responds to three forms of problem-space misalignment—conceptual, definitional, and evaluative—and proposes adolescent-centered design principles for social platforms. By foregrounding relational support, the work establishes a focused design direction and corresponding evaluation criteria, significantly enhancing youth agency throughout the design process.

Abstract

Social media is central to how young people maintain relationships, develop identity, and access communities, yet dominant platform designs often leave youth feeling constrained rather than supported. My dissertation argues that youth social media design is shaped by three forms of problem-space misattunement. \textit{Conceptual misattunement} occurs when the language of ``social media'' anchors participants to existing platform templates. I address this through Fictional Inquiry in a fictional magic-school setting that helps youth reason from felt relational needs. \textit{Definitional misattunement} occurs when researchers define what ``better'' means on youth's behalf. I address this through a Discord-based asynchronous community that supports youth-led collective inquiry. \textit{Evaluative misattunement} occurs when participants are asked to judge static or hypothetical designs. I address this through an ego-anchored, LLM-agent simulation sandbox. Together, these studies develop youth-grounded criteria and design directions for relationally supportive social media.

Problem

• problem-space misattunement
• youth social media design
• relational support
• conceptual misattunement
• evaluative misattunement

Innovation

• problem-space attunement
• youth-centered design
• fictional inquiry
• LLM-agent simulation
• asynchronous co-inquiry