Rural adolescent engagement with social media (video sharing mobile apps) and its implications on their livelihood and social development

青少年的物理世界、社交世界和数字世界相互交织，甚至可能相互融合，这意味着青少年的在线行为可以反映和塑造他们的生活（Subrahmanyam & Smahel,2010）。以前的研究已经从不同的角度评估了数字媒体在青少年发展中的作用，从身份、社会关系、暴力、性到他们的学业成就。虽然现有的文献主要集中在Facebook和YouTube等平台上，通常是在美国和欧洲的背景下，但很少有实证研究解决了非西方背景下社交媒体平台的影响。鉴于数字技术最近渗透到中国农村青少年的生活中，本研究以中国农村背景为中心，以填补这一空白。这项研究将重点关注快手，这是一个在中国农村人口中非常受欢迎的短视频分享移动应用程序。本研究的目的是记录农村青年对视频分享平台的参与情况，并了解他们的网络文化实践如何反映和塑造他们的生计和社会发展。将选择三到五所农村中学作为多个案例研究。以定性方法为重点的混合方法将被用于了解和检查农村青少年对平台的参与及其所构建的意义。本研究的结果将有助于对数字文化生产和社会技术系统对中学生日常生活的影响的持续讨论。

The physical, social and digital worlds of adolescentsare intertwined and may even blend with each other,meaning that adolescents' online behaviours can reflectand shape their livelihood (Subrahmanyam & Smahel,2010). Previous studies have evaluated the role ofdigital media in adolescent development from diverseperspectives ranging from identity, social relationship,violence, sexuality to their academic attainment. Whilethe existing literature largely focuses on platforms suchas Facebook and YouTube, often in the context of theUS and Europe, little empirical research has addressedthe implications of social media platforms in a non-Western context. Given the recent penetration of digitaltechnologies into adolescents' lives in rural China, thisstudy centres on an under-examined Chinese ruralcontext to fill the gap.This study will focus on Kuaishou, a short video-sharingmobile application with massive popularity among theChinese rural population. The objective of this study is todocument rural youth engagement with the videosharingplatform and to understand how their onlinecultural practices reflect and shape their livelihood andsocial development. Three to five rural middle schoolswill be selected as multiple case studies. Mixed methodswith qualitive methods as the priority approach will beused to understand and examine rural adolescents'engagement with the platform and the meaningsconstructed by them. The findings of this study willcontribute to the ongoing discussion over the digitalcultural production and the implications of sociotechnicalsystems for middle school students in everyday life.