Catalyzing youth civic engagement through innovations in social computing

Abstract

Youth activist groups face the challenge of using Social Networking Apps collaboratively and strategically, which in turn impacts their sense of efficacy and online social identification, and limits youth's capacity at engaging in collective action effectively. Social computing tools have the potential to provide an integrative space that facilitates reflection on individual and group members' experiences at using Social Networking Apps, and by enhancing one's capacity to use the resources available in their network (social capital) strategically. Guided by the Social Identity Model of Collective Action, that characterizes collective action as being driven by social identification (an individual's sense of belonging to a social group) and collective efficacy (an individual's belief that engaging in collective actions will make it more likely for the group to achieve their goals), I explore: 1) How do existing SNAs support and inhibit youth activism? 2) How should social computing tools be designed to help youth activist groups to understand and put to use the social capital available to them? 3) How can social network visualizations be designed to enhance youth's sense of collective efficacy for achieving their goals and their online social identification as a group? In this thesis, I report on a 4-year study of youth activists within a youth empowerment organization. I report on findings from youth's experiences of using Social Networking Applications for youth activism. I focus not only on youth but also on the intergenerational aspect of youth and adults working together in an organizational setting. I use object-oriented public theoretical lens to examine how technology mediates the interplay between youth activists, staff, and activists' audiences. I report on findings from my research that investigates how visualizing one's network connections can help youth activists make more effective decisions in their work, and how network literacy training could shape youth activits' perspective on the way they could shift their outreach strategies. I report on the design implications for social computing tools that support the use of Social Networking Applications for better accessing one's social capital, helping youth's sense of online social identification as a group, as well as their sense of efficacy at using Social Networking Applications for activism. I introduce a social computing tool, which is a web app developed for youth activists at youth empowerment organizations. Lastly, I propose an extension to the Social Identity Model of Collective Action to adapts it for the context of youth activism online. My thesis research contributes to research on civic technology and human-computer interaction, by yielding findings that characterize how interactive social computing tools could support civic engagement.