How Do Social Media Impact Young People’s Health and Well-Being?

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

This session will illustrate and analyse the complex relationship between young people and their engagement with social media, and its impacts on physical and mental health and wellbeing. The session draws on data from over 1500 young people as ‘expert’ (or at least prolific) social media users and offers analysis from multi-disciplinary perspectives. Through refining the pedagogical case model (Armour, 2014; Casey et al., 2016), case studies of young people are constructed from empirically rich data and presented in the form of six composite digital narratives. The aim is to generate new critical insights into the pressures and possibilities of social media for contemporary youth, and to consider the implications for pedagogy and practice in health and physical education (HPE).

Sub Unit

• SIG-Research on Learning and Instruction in Physical Education

Chair

• Mark Griffiths, University of Birmingham

Papers

• Digital Cases: Young People's Engagement With Social Media and Its Impacts on Their Health and Well-Being - Victoria Anne Goodyear, University of Birmingham; Kathleen M. Armour, University of Birmingham; Hannah Elizabeth Wood, University of Birmingham

• School Physical Education and Pedagogies of Affect: Using Social Media to Facilitate Emotional and Mental Health and Well-Being - David Kirk, University of Strathclyde

• Digital Memes: The Role of Technology in Shaping Young People's Constructions of Health and Well-Being - Ashley Casey, Loughborough University

• Space, Place, and Identity: The New Pressures Experienced in the Lives of Young People - Rachel Sandford, Loughborough University; Thomas Quarmby, Leeds Beckett University

Discussant

• Stephen Silverman, Teachers College, Columbia University