1. Learning to Exist in Social Media
A Grounded Theory about Adolescents’ Understanding
of Their Interactions in Social Media,
Their Impact on Their Everyday Life and the Behaviour
They Develop to Manage Them
Nadia Naffi
2012

2. Agenda
Context
Purpose
Review of The Literature
Research Questions
Methodology
Results
Conclusion
Suggestion for Future Research

3. Context
Social media
Main communication tool used by adolescents
Lebanon
Highest percentage of users accessing the Internet from their
mobile phones / Smartphones in the Middle East
Highest at home WI-FI availability in the Middle East
Issues
2G cellular phones services (3G services launched in October 2011)
Ranked 160th regarding Internet connectivity

4. Purpose of the Study
The purpose of this qualitative interpretive study was to
better understand adolescents’ mental representation
of their practices in social media and detect instances
of informal learning, based solely on how participants
construed their experiences.

5. Offline/ Online Adolescents
Bennett & Maton
Blais, Craig, Pepler, & Connolly
Boneva, Quinn, Kraut, Kiesler,
Shklovski
Cynkar
Erikson
Lehdonvirta & Rasanen
Lenhart, Madden, Smith, Purcell,
Zickuhr, & Rainie
Margalit
Mesch.
The Nielsen Company
Ong, Ang, Ho, Lim,, Goh, Lee & Chua
Patchin, & Hinduja
Pew Internet
Reich
Saul
Subrahmanyam, Garcia, Harsono, Li
& Lipana, Reich, Waechter & Espinoza
Tapscott
Twenge
Valkenburg & Peter
Van Cleemput
Varnhagen, McFall,Pugh,
Routledge,Sumida-MacDonaldKwong
Social media’s affordances
and risks (including
addiction)
Acier
Amichai-Hamburger
Block
boyd & Ellison
Chakraborty, Basu & Kumar
Cotterell
Foxman
Grannovetter
Guan & Subrahmanya
Ito, Baumer, Bittanti, boyd, Cody,
Herr-Stephenson &Trip
Joinson
Jonsson
Kaplan & Haenlein,
Liang, Commins & Duffy
Maranto, & Barton
Norton
Roe
Surratt,
Thompson & Cupples,
Villella, Martinotti, Di Nicola,
Cassano, La Torre, Gliubizzi,
Messeri, Petruccelli, Bria & Janiri
Zamaria & Fletcher
Informal learning
Carliner
Greenhow & Robelia
Smith
Learning with
social media
Perreault
Tessier-Bouchard
Wenger
Wesch
Williams
&
Edge
Learning theories
Bandura (self-efficacy)
O'Donnell, D'Amico,
Schmid, Reeve, & Smith
Vygotsky & Cole
Methodology
Chevalier & Buckles
Creswell
Fransella
Gaines & Shaw
Glaser & Strauss
Huberman & Miles
Jankowicz
Kelly
Social media in Lebanon
bayt.com.
Economic Research & Analysis
Department
iloubnan.info
Theories of
motivation
Maslow
Rutledge
Ryan & Deci
Body of Literature Covered

7. Research Questions
What are adolescents’ mental representations
of their practices with social media?
How do adolescents explain their behavior in social media, and
its consequences on their offline life?
How do they construe their interactions with the social media
apps they use inside their networks?
Are adolescents aware of instances of learning
while in social media?
What type of learning do adolescents perceive as possible with
social media?

8. Methodology
A Grounded Theory Design
Elements
Constructs
1 5
Data Analysis
RepGrid
Grounded theory approach
Transcribing and translating 13
hours of interviews
Open coding
Axial coding
Selective coding
Credibility and
trustworthiness
Participants
Instruments
Semi-structured interview
Construct analysis interview
Validation interview

9. Results
Open Coding

10. Elements (or factors) affecting adolescents' use of
social media
Related to the technology
Constraints to use (technical/connection/quality/cost/etc.),
Access- Practicality (wherever, whenever), Level of
complexity (complicated/simple, clear, easy), Synchronicity
(instant/delayed messages), Updates of the technology,
Degree of privacy, Negative effects of social media
Related to the user
Prior impressions, Degree of formality/ amusement, Level of
satisfaction, Degree of usefulness (as an indirect
communication method, as a rapprochement facilitator, as
self-disclosure tool), Identification as a present or future need,
Out-datedness of the medium & Technology replacement,
Egocentrism, Relationship with the medium (technology),
Cyborg, Personification of the medium, Shaping of the
technology,Level of "addiction", Red light effect, Relationship
with online strangers, Level of online xenophobia (fear of
online strangers)
Related to others
Expectations from others & Others' expectations, Replies,
comments etc., Double life, Being alive only if active on social
media, Competition's intensity, Parents' reactions
Results
Open Coding
Reason for first use (Initiation to social media)
Wow effect (Majority effect, Novelty effect)
Peer pressure + Fear of disappearing (being forgotten)
Curiosity/ Search/ Discovery
Consequences of a hypothetical absence of
social media on participants’ offline life
Positive outcome
Negative outcome
Learning in social media
Informal learning: to use the medium (Social learning,
Autonomously through Experimentation, Social learning
& Experimental learning)
Informal learning: with the technology (Technology as
a learning tool, Technology as a learning environment,
Group knowledge, Socialization, Management skills,
Texting/ Chatting abbreviations, Learning
abbreviations,Creating abbreviations)

11. 1st question: adolescents’ description and
interpretation of their practices in social media and
their outcomes
According to participants, their practices in social media were an
addiction, resulting from a necessity and managed by functionality
2nd question: Adolescents’ awareness of instances
of learning while in social media
According to participants, their main reason for using social media
was to stay connected, to communicate and to have fun. Learning
was never the purpose, unless one of their teachers used social
media as an environment for class interactions
Answers to the Research Questions
A person’s processes are psychologically channelized by the
ways in which he anticipates events (Kelly, 1991)

12. The Foundations of Adolescents’ Interaction in Social Media
- the model emerging from the grounded theory
Learn to existLearn to exist

13. The Foundations of Adolescents’ Interaction in Social Media
- the model emerging from the grounded theory
Casual conditions
Majority effect
Novelty effect
Peer pressure
Gaining technical skills:
Learning how
to use the medium
Gaining socialization skills:
Learning to socialize
through and within the medium
Gaining managerial skills:
Learning to manage
the usage of the medium
and deal with its constraints
Extension of
adolescents
cognition
Gaining new knowledge
through accessing
the group knowledge
and receiving and sharing
new pieces of information
Autonomously
and/or with
social interactions
Learn to [exist]
Learn [to exist]
Context
Core category
Phenomenon
ConsequencesStrategies
Actions/ Interactions
Searching/
Discovering/
Experiencing/
Evaluating/
Making decisions
Intervening
conditions
Related to the technology
Related to the user
Related to others
Lebanon
Social media
main communication tool
used by adolescents
Need social presence
[of] others
Need social presence
[to] others
Fear of disappearing
(being forgotten)
Learn to exist

14. Learn to [exist]
and
Learn [to exist]

15. Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-
actualization
PhysiologicalSafetyLove/Belonging
Esteem
Self-
actualization
Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self- actualization
Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-
actualization
Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-actualization
Physiological
Safety
Love/Belonging
Esteem
Self-
actualization
Physiological
Safety
Love / Belonging
Esteem
Self-
actualization
Physiological
Safety
Love / Belonging
Esteem
Self-
actualization
PhysiologicalSafetyLove / BelongingEsteem
Self-
actualization
19
8
7
65
4
3 2
Adapted from Maslow
Physiological
Safety
Love / Belonging
Esteem
Self-actualization
Internet connectivity
Device (mobile phone, computer, iPad, iPod...)
Applications Sites
From strangers, cyberbullies, hackers, thiefs
Digital health (moderate and controlled use) Privacy
Online connections and friends
Comunities of practice
Online interest groups
Self-esteem
Respect of/ by others
High Interactiactivity
(posts, comments, likes)
Self-efficacy
Personal growth
Personal fulfillment
Self-development
Feeling of own value
Learning
to exist
Need
to Exist

16. Conclusion
Transferable Construct
Adolescents face two challenges to flourish online:
1.Learn to [exist] through acquiring technical skills
2.Learn [to exist] through developing online soft skills
Achieved due to adolescents’ self-determination and intrinsic motivation to learn.
Future Research Questions
Now that we understand the motives behind adolescents’ autonomous and
seamless informal learning in social media, how can we
1. Create a learning environment in our schools that mirrors the environment in
which adolescents are living while in social media, where students feel the
need and the passion to learn, set goals for themselves and thrive
autonomously to achieve them?
2. Integrate the technologies that are already part of our adolescents’ lives in
this new school environment?
Limitations of the Study
1. Not generalizable but transferable
2. Qualitative interpretive study (self-reported data, inductive analysis)

17. Suggestions for Future Research
Action research to accompany a group
of adolescents in formal learning settings
and observe:
The qualitative changes that may occur
in how this group construe learning
with social media
Participants’ engagement in new
learning processes with social media
Pedagogical changes with social media
(shift of ownership of knowledge)
Ethnography, narrative or case study
with various groups of adolescents to:
Observe them for a significant period of
time
Observe how adolescents’ social media
behaviors affect their cognitive and
emotional development directly and
indirectly
Apply new knowledge into the educational system

18. Examining Committee:
Dr. Ann-Louise Davidson, Supervisor
Dr. Saul Carliner
Dr. David Waddington
Dr. Pavel Trofimovitch, Chair