Implications Of A Social Media Course For Adolescent Social Media Usage / By Nneka A. Johnson.

Abstract

The use of social media is becoming more pervasive in our society. Adolescents are suffering dire consequences as a result of their social media postings and many feel that schools are not adequately preparing youth to navigate within this new participatory culture paradigm. The purpose of this study was to acquire an awareness of how a planned curriculum around teaching high school seniors about the various implications of social media changed their social media usage. The study was rooted in Bandura’s social learning theory but more specifically observational and vicarious learning in conjunction with the concept of vicarious punishment.

The research design for this qualitative inquiry was grounded in the case study tradition. Four participants were selected for this study, who represented diverse perspectives. The data consisted of three interviews, social media activity, and archival reflective essays from the course.

After the data analysis, it was deduced that the students changed their social media behavior as a result of what was learned by observation in the course in conjunction