Tracing Change in Social Media Use: A Qualitative Longitudinal Study
2025 (English)In: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems / [ed] Naomi Yamashita, Vanessa Evers, Koji Yatani, Xianghua (Sharon) Ding, Bongshin Lee, Marshini Chetty, Phoebe Toups-Dugas, ACM Digital Library, 2025, p. 1-14, article id 957Conference paper, Published paper (Refereed)
Abstract [en]
This study reveals a significant shift in how users perceive and engage with social media over time. Our analysis is based on qualitative longitudinal research carried out over ten years, involving a small group of participants in 2012, 2017, and 2022. Semi-structured, in-depth interviews were conducted using stimulated recall allowing for retrospection and reflection. Through this methodology, we trace the shifting perceptions of social media users, from initially embracing these platforms for quick, fun, and social activities, to later recognizing their potential intrusiveness and seeking strategies to manage their use. We outline three central trajectories that illustrate shifts in social media use across time: from public performance to private interaction, from producing to consuming and from fun to problematic. For HCI and social media studies, these findings underscore the need to prioritize user agency, ethical design practices, and longitudinal research endeavors to understand the evolving impacts of social media.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
ACM Digital Library, 2025. p. 1-14, article id 957
Keywords [en]
Social media, Social media use, Longitudinal, QLR, Qualitative methods, Understanding people
National Category
Information Systems, Social aspects
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-23330DOI: 10.1145/3706598.3713813ISBN: 9798400713941 (electronic)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-23330DiVA, id: diva2:1956837
Conference
CHI ’25, April 26–May 01, 2025, Yokohama, Japan
Note
CC BY 4.0
2025-05-072025-05-072025-05-07