Lecture 1 – Introduction
Definitions youth culture and social media
Culture: “a group’s distinctive way of life, including its beliefs and values, its customs, and
its art and technologies”
- Geographical: e.g. Dutch culture
- Social: groups you wish to belong to, e.g. healthy identity
- Temporal: how age and generation go together with specific culture. Important within
youth culture
Youth culture refers to:
- Shared beliefs, behaviors, practices, and values of young people within a particular
society or subculture
- The ways in which young individuals express themselves, interact with one another,
and distinguish themselves from older generations
o Can be a goal for adolescence
- Is dynamic and can vary significantly across time and place, reflecting the cultural,
social, and historical context in which it emerges
o Youth culture is not universal, we are studying mostly western youth culture
Key aspects youth culture:
- Fashion and style
- Music
- Language
- Social activities
- Values and ideals
- Media & technology
o All these key aspects converge online. You can use social
media to experiment with identities
o Digital media: communication and content that is created and
spread though digital context, video’s, images etc. on websites
o Not all media is social media. Social media is more user focused. Social media
is focused on sharing, commenting, following, collaborating
Disrupting or enriching traditional culture?
"Digital media has disrupted/enriched traditional communication”
1
,Social presence theory: “sense of being together” lower in digital media
- For good quality communication, you need a sense of someone being there (non-
verbal communication)
- You cannot see the face expression of the other one
- You can choose when to reply
- Communication is less rich
Social information processing theory: how people process and react to social information
- How people process information
o People with disruptive behaviors process facial
expressions different than other peers. Social cues can
be received differently within the person. Same
message can be interpreted in different ways. Depends
on the skills of people
- To sum SIP up: social media is not just disrupting or enriching our lives, it depends
on the receiver and how they process information
Channel expansion theory: users with experience will strive to
develop necessary skills
- Each new channel people develop new skills to use this
channel
How is it used?
How you use it:
- Replacement or addition
o Is it a replacement of addition?
- Passively or actively
o Passively: scrolling through Instagram
o Actively: looking for inspiration
Why you use it?
Uses & Gratifications theory: "What purposes or functions does media offer for active
receivers?"
- Users are active users
- They actively choose the media they use
- They will fulfill their needs
Lasswell (1948) - four main reasons to use media:
- Surveillance of the environment: what is going on around you? (e.g. news)
- Affective need: emotional fulfillment (e.g. comedy movie)
- Cultural transmission: learn about the values in our society (e.g. First dates)
2
, - Entertainment: looking for relaxation
Self-promotion, maintain existing relationships, need for
creativity, escapism, expressing opinions (Sheldon et al,
2017)
Is passively scrolling through Instagram to escape reality
“as bad” as actively engaging in a YouTube community to express your feelings?
Approaches in youth development
Adolescence:
- Early adolescence (10-13)
- Middle adolescence (14-17)
- Late adolescence (18-24)
Youth development – 2 frameworks:
- Developmental task approach
o Normative/general approach
o Developmental tasks/challenges need to be fulfilled
- Risk and resilience approach
o To explain differences (protective and risk factors)
o Differential life experiences among children
Developmental tasks approach - basic idea:
- Hierarchic list of tasks, met through biological or social development
Erikson’s developmental stages:
- Each developmental stage there is a
certain conflict central to that
developmental stage
- Adolescence: identity vs. role confusion
- Young adulthood: intimacy vs. isolation
3
, - If we study media effects, it is important that during adolescence they are working on
these key developmental tasks
Developmental tasks approach:
- Basic idea: hierarchic list of tasks, met through biological or social development ->
cumulative
- Media effect: effects depend on the age of the user
Scary media content and trauma:
- Perceptual stage (2-7): they will interpret what they see as what it
feels like, interpret directly, looking scary
- Conceptual stage (7+): able to think in more abstract ways, being
real. We will find a scary picture less scary but an abstract picture
scarier (e.g. war pictures)
Adolescents and celebrities:
- Parents are examples (<12)
- Influencers are examples (+12)
Risk and resilience approach:
- Basic idea: risk and protective factors explain differences between people ->
cumulative risk model
o Risk factors and protective factors
- Applications: snowball effect, turn around models
2 applications on risk and protective factors:
- Snowball effect:
o The more risk factors, the bigger the snowball (the bigger the
consequences)
o The more protective factors, the bigger the snowball (the
bigger the consequences)
- Turnaround model:
o T1, T2, T3: longitudinal study
o Three groups of trajectories: stable group, stable high group,
desisters group
4
Definitions youth culture and social media
Culture: “a group’s distinctive way of life, including its beliefs and values, its customs, and
its art and technologies”
- Geographical: e.g. Dutch culture
- Social: groups you wish to belong to, e.g. healthy identity
- Temporal: how age and generation go together with specific culture. Important within
youth culture
Youth culture refers to:
- Shared beliefs, behaviors, practices, and values of young people within a particular
society or subculture
- The ways in which young individuals express themselves, interact with one another,
and distinguish themselves from older generations
o Can be a goal for adolescence
- Is dynamic and can vary significantly across time and place, reflecting the cultural,
social, and historical context in which it emerges
o Youth culture is not universal, we are studying mostly western youth culture
Key aspects youth culture:
- Fashion and style
- Music
- Language
- Social activities
- Values and ideals
- Media & technology
o All these key aspects converge online. You can use social
media to experiment with identities
o Digital media: communication and content that is created and
spread though digital context, video’s, images etc. on websites
o Not all media is social media. Social media is more user focused. Social media
is focused on sharing, commenting, following, collaborating
Disrupting or enriching traditional culture?
"Digital media has disrupted/enriched traditional communication”
1
,Social presence theory: “sense of being together” lower in digital media
- For good quality communication, you need a sense of someone being there (non-
verbal communication)
- You cannot see the face expression of the other one
- You can choose when to reply
- Communication is less rich
Social information processing theory: how people process and react to social information
- How people process information
o People with disruptive behaviors process facial
expressions different than other peers. Social cues can
be received differently within the person. Same
message can be interpreted in different ways. Depends
on the skills of people
- To sum SIP up: social media is not just disrupting or enriching our lives, it depends
on the receiver and how they process information
Channel expansion theory: users with experience will strive to
develop necessary skills
- Each new channel people develop new skills to use this
channel
How is it used?
How you use it:
- Replacement or addition
o Is it a replacement of addition?
- Passively or actively
o Passively: scrolling through Instagram
o Actively: looking for inspiration
Why you use it?
Uses & Gratifications theory: "What purposes or functions does media offer for active
receivers?"
- Users are active users
- They actively choose the media they use
- They will fulfill their needs
Lasswell (1948) - four main reasons to use media:
- Surveillance of the environment: what is going on around you? (e.g. news)
- Affective need: emotional fulfillment (e.g. comedy movie)
- Cultural transmission: learn about the values in our society (e.g. First dates)
2
, - Entertainment: looking for relaxation
Self-promotion, maintain existing relationships, need for
creativity, escapism, expressing opinions (Sheldon et al,
2017)
Is passively scrolling through Instagram to escape reality
“as bad” as actively engaging in a YouTube community to express your feelings?
Approaches in youth development
Adolescence:
- Early adolescence (10-13)
- Middle adolescence (14-17)
- Late adolescence (18-24)
Youth development – 2 frameworks:
- Developmental task approach
o Normative/general approach
o Developmental tasks/challenges need to be fulfilled
- Risk and resilience approach
o To explain differences (protective and risk factors)
o Differential life experiences among children
Developmental tasks approach - basic idea:
- Hierarchic list of tasks, met through biological or social development
Erikson’s developmental stages:
- Each developmental stage there is a
certain conflict central to that
developmental stage
- Adolescence: identity vs. role confusion
- Young adulthood: intimacy vs. isolation
3
, - If we study media effects, it is important that during adolescence they are working on
these key developmental tasks
Developmental tasks approach:
- Basic idea: hierarchic list of tasks, met through biological or social development ->
cumulative
- Media effect: effects depend on the age of the user
Scary media content and trauma:
- Perceptual stage (2-7): they will interpret what they see as what it
feels like, interpret directly, looking scary
- Conceptual stage (7+): able to think in more abstract ways, being
real. We will find a scary picture less scary but an abstract picture
scarier (e.g. war pictures)
Adolescents and celebrities:
- Parents are examples (<12)
- Influencers are examples (+12)
Risk and resilience approach:
- Basic idea: risk and protective factors explain differences between people ->
cumulative risk model
o Risk factors and protective factors
- Applications: snowball effect, turn around models
2 applications on risk and protective factors:
- Snowball effect:
o The more risk factors, the bigger the snowball (the bigger the
consequences)
o The more protective factors, the bigger the snowball (the
bigger the consequences)
- Turnaround model:
o T1, T2, T3: longitudinal study
o Three groups of trajectories: stable group, stable high group,
desisters group
4
