A great deal of research is being carried out into media use among children and young people. Time and again, studies show how hard it is to stop using social media and how existing solutions, such as setting time limits or turning off notifications, hardly help. Even age based bans on social media have not been proven effective. Together with young people and the creative industry, the project therefore examined how to redesign young people’s online and offline worlds.

Everyday digital life

In the survey among almost 1,000 young people, the researchers mapped their social media habits and attempts to balance online and offline life. ‘This allowed us to identify where there are opportunities for interventions. These are more likely to be successful if they match the needs of young people themselves,’ Sumter explains.

The participants report using social media intensively, often losing track of time and finding it difficult to cut down their use. TikTok and Snapchat are most often experienced as ‘too much’, while WhatsApp is seen as relatively well balanced.

At the same time, they stress that social media helps them feel connected to others and part of a group. They want to be able to decide for themselves how to better balance between screen time and life beyond the screen.

Cutting down does not mean ‘quitting altogether’, but rather moving towards calmer platform design with less scrolling and more room for meaningful contact, both online and offline. ‘A considerable proportion of young people, especially teenagers in rural areas and girls, feel there are too few places in their neighbourhood where they can meet and relax,’ says Sumter.

More connection, less endless scrolling

During the design pilots, participants pointed to concrete features that contribute to overuse, such as endless feeds, short videos, personalised content and notifications. They suggested design changes themselves: fewer triggers, clear pause moments in the feed and features that encourage contact with others, while interrupting endless scrolling.

This has resulted in three prototypes that support these goals and give young people more influence over their online and offline experiences. According to the researchers, creating more of such ‘third spaces’ is a crucial step towards restoring the balance between online and offline time use.

Key players in the field

The prototypes will be further tested this winter and, if results are positive, the team hopes they will be taken up widely by key players in the field. ‘We hope that municipalities, policymakers at national and European level, telecom providers and the technology sector will take the lead in developing services that help young people, and ultimately all users, to engage with social media in a healthier way,’ says Sumter.

The SpaceTeen consortium is co funded with PPS-i resources from the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy, via TKI CLICKNL. By combining a design driven approach and research in its programmes, CLICKNL helps companies, regions and governments to convert knowledge and technology more quickly into applicable, scalable innovations for a future proof Netherlands. The partners are Erasmus University Rotterdam, Kinderpostzegels, NEMO, KPN, VodafoneZiggo, the City of Amsterdam, KidsRights, YoungMedia, ScrollScrollScroll, Muzus and TodayTomorrow.