Social groups, social media, and civic participation of high school youth

摘要

High school social groups (e.g., 'jocks' and 'nerds') and social media (e.g., instant messaging and social network sites) are prominent in the lives of high school students. Social groups affect what high school students find acceptable doing. However, little is known about how social groups affect students' shaping of civic and political selves, or whether social media bridge social relationships across distant high school social groups and engender positive spill-over effects for civic participation. This socio-technical mixed methods study is positioned at the intersection of high school social groups, uses of social media, and students' participation in extracurricular activities, with particular interest in civic participation. Design implications will be drawn from analysis of three data sets: a student questionnaire with sociometric questions, interviews, and observations of students' daily activities. Conceptual and methodological contributions to the HCI literature are discussed.