Disconnecting and Reconnecting: A Photovoice Workshop on Healthy Social Media Use

Early adolescents often hear messages like "Don't spend too much time on your phone!" Yet little is known about how middle school youth regulate their smartphone usage. To help fill that gap, the authors held a week-long summer workshop to explore early adolescents' perspectives on positive and healthy social media usage. A community-based participatory action research model was used to design a social media curriculum around one specific middle school community, beginning by gathering perspectives from students, parents, and staff. This work shaped a workshop curriculum, which was piloted in summer 2019 with 13 students from this middle school. The workshop activities engaged participants in reflecting on their social media habits, using a method called photovoice to empower participants to share the world through their lenses. In the process, they developed interest in becoming producers as well as critical consumers of social media. The long-term goal is to incorporate these participants' voices into a user-centered design process to build an app, website, or workshop to support healthy social media use. The photovoice project provides an example of how to engage in a research-community collaboration to learn which social media and well-being issues are most salient in a school community. It is also a model to show afterschool or summer program providers how to conduct their own photovoice workshop.