A Social Norms Approach to Youth Social Media Design

2026-07-02

AI Summary

This study addresses the challenges adolescents face in achieving authentic self-expression, minimizing judgment, and building interpersonal trust on mainstream social media, arguing that these limitations stem from platform-level norms rather than individual choices. Grounded in social norm theory, the research employs a participatory design and evidence-driven approach to co-create a standalone social platform prototype centered on fostering trustworthy relationships. Innovatively, it internalizes relational goals—such as privacy—as platform-wide social norms rather than relying solely on user-controlled settings, thereby challenging conventional platform architectures. Findings demonstrate that norm-consistent design effectively signals trust-oriented values and positively shapes adolescent interaction patterns, substantiating the feasibility and promise of an alternative platform paradigm.

Abstract

Young people consistently say they want authentic self-expression, less judgment, and more interpersonal trust on social media, yet they rarely manage to engage that way. My dissertation argues that the obstacle is normative rather than individual: how youth engage is governed less by personal choice than by platform norms, peer perception, and beliefs about how others behave. I take a social norms approach to youth social media design organized around three claims. First, platform norms constrain individual behavior, producing a pluralistic ignorance in which youth enact norms they privately reject. Second, design interventions are themselves shaped by existing norms, so whether a feature works depends on the environment around it, which means relational goals such as privacy must be treated as social norms rather than individual settings. Third, a societal norm about what ``social media'' is -- equating it with a few mainstream platforms -- confines policy and design to mitigating those platforms rather than actively envisioning supportive alternatives. Together these claims motivate my dissertation research: engaging youth directly in designing and building an evidence-based independent platform whose features consistently signal that building trusted connections is what the space is for.

Problem

• social norms
• youth
• social media design
• authentic self-expression
• interpersonal trust

Innovation

• social norms
• youth-centered design
• pluralistic ignorance
• relational privacy
• alternative social media