Pictured Right Social Media Testdrive Dashboard
Pictured Left Sample of simulated social media taken from 'Online Identities' lesson.
Project Details
Project name Testdrive Parent Study started by Cornell's Social Media Lab
My role Research assistant and designer
Date August 2020 - May 2021
What is Social Media Testdrive?
Social Media Testdrive is a resource for teaching kids digital literacy and citizenship skills through experiential learning in a life-like social media simulation.
What is the purpose of Testdrive Parent Study?
This project aims to develop a foundational understanding of low SES immigrant parents' challenges in supporting their kids to safely navigate privacy risks on social media. Insights from this study will be used to inform future designs and curriculum development for Social Media Testdrive.
Research Question
How does perceived privacy risks and concerns influence immigrant parents’ involvement in tweens’ digital experiences and education regarding social media?
The Problem
Parents use mediation strategies to reduce potential risks and increase benefits related to their children's social media use. Inequality may exist in selecting and applying mediation strategies, especially in immigrant parents who generally have limited digital literacy, competency, self-efficacy and perceptions of risks and benefits related to social media use.
Target User
Low SES immigrant parents in the U.S with middle school aged kids (11-13 years old).
The rationale for focusing on this group was that digital divide literature often indicates low SES as a key resource-challenge; studying immigrant households enables us to focus on digital skills and cultural gaps between parents and kids.
Conducted 11 literature reviews of academic papers on parent's mediation strategies.
Restrictive, Active or Co-use are the three most common ways parents mediate their child's digital use. Once parents identified a privacy concern with their child, they react using either active or restrictive mediation. (Refer to diagram below)
Restrictive mediation refers to enforcing rules to attempt to control children’s media use, specifically limiting the time spent on social media and/ or kind of content being viewed.
Active mediation involves parents talking with their kids about media content. Within this category there are negative, positive and neutral active mediation techniques.
Co-use Parents consuming and/or interacting with media together.
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Affinity Diagramming Session
Contributed to an affinity diagramming session that identified important findings from our literature review based on the various themes of parental concerns, mediation strategies, & barriers/pain points and contextual factors.
Identified a fourth mediation strategy that was beginning to emerge called participatory learning.
Next Steps
Exploration of how participatory learning strategies could be used to incorporated parents into Social Media Testdrive.
What I would have done next
I am currently working on a different project at the Social Media Lab called Asylum Seekers. But towards the end of my time on this project, I suggested conducting experimental design sessions with parents from lower SES and immigrant families that have a middle school aged child to better understand the best way to incorporate participatory learning strategies.
Part A: Unmoderated Usability Study
Screen-share the test drive dashboard and allow parent and child to go through one module with kids. Observe interaction, asking them to speak out loud as they move through module. Conduct an exit interview to gather feedback and insights.
Part B: Co-engagement activity
Lessons are broken down into specific tasks, reflections and free practice. Testing the following scenarios with different parent-child pairs would help us to better understand what level of engagement is most effective:
1. Parents complete entire modules with kids including reflection.
2. Parents complete guided module with kids and kids reflect/free practice alone
3. Kids complete guided module alone and parents reflect/free practice with kids
4. Kids go through entire module on their own with checkpoints with parent to continue
