A study of conceptualisations of authenticity in relation to young people's self-presentation on social media.

该项目将探讨真实性，社交媒体和教育之间的关系。通过访谈、焦点小组和照片驱动的数据收集，本项目将探索年轻人如何看待在线和离线的真实性，以及教育如何应对年轻人的数字素养和在线体验的变化。数字技术与真实性的关系是复杂的。Pallud和Straub（2007）认为，“技术”和“真实性”这两个词是冲突的，因为技术意味着模拟，而真实性意味着自然和真实的。然而，似乎有一种趋势，即消费者和平台希望在社交媒体中获得真实性。流行的应用程序“BeReal”证明了这一点;该应用程序与其他被认为将表面的表演性灌输到用户实践中的应用程序保持距离（Duffy和Gerrard，2022），并在构建自我呈现的数字世界中围绕真实性展开了讨论（DeVito和Birnholtz，2017）。在这个不断变化的环境中，鉴于社交媒体在年轻人的日常生活中越来越多的存在，这个项目将探讨年轻人如何理解真实性，以及这如何影响他们的在线和离线行为和互动。从教育的角度来看，这个项目将真实性定位为发展数字素养的重要组成部分。英国计算机课程指出，在关键阶段3和4，学生应该是数字识字，“表达自己，并通过发展自己的想法，信息和通信技术在一个适合未来工作场所的水平，并作为积极的参与者在数字世界”（DfE，2013：1）。学习“表达自己”和“积极参与者”的一个关键部分是驾驭真实性问题，这很难概念化，因为这些问题部分是主观的，部分是上下文，部分是关于实验和学习自己的偏好身份。线上和线下不再是独立的实体，我们在这些领域的身份相互交织（Arfini等人，2021年），并以微妙的方式分开，创造了了解真实性或不真实性如何在社交媒体和当代生活的年轻人的背景下工作的需要。然而，真实性是一个研究不足和理论化不足的概念，特别是在教育研究中。鉴于社交媒体应用程序和设计越来越多地以各种形式走向真实性，本项目旨在填补研究文献中的这一空白，以更好地理解真实性在年轻人生活中的重要性，以及这对教育和数字素养的意义。本研究受解释主义设计的影响，将采用现象学方法来填补研究空白。它将采用创造性的方法，利用一次性相机作为文化探测器，要求参与者在一个月内的某个时间拍摄他们正在做的事情，每周三次。本月底，我将对参与者进行半结构化采访，讨论这些照片、他们对“真实性”的看法以及他们的社交媒体习惯，从而分析真实性和在线规范的关键概念。这将在6个月内重复两次，最后的讨论以参与者的焦点小组结束。这将为参与者创建一个批判性研讨会，讨论他们注意到了什么，他们的社交媒体存在可能发生了什么变化，以及他们对真实性的概念化。

This project will explore the relationship between authenticity, social media, and education. Throughinterviews, focus groups, and photo-driven data collection this project will explore how young people viewauthenticity online and offline, and how education can respond to these changes in young people's digitalliteracies and online experiences.The relationship of digital technologies to authenticity is complex. Pallud and Straub (2007) suggest thatthe words 'technology' and 'authenticity' clash, in that technology connotes the simulated, whereasauthenticity connotes the natural and real. However, there appears to be a move towards consumers andplatforms desiring authenticity within social media. The popular app 'BeReal' testifies this; the appdistances itself from others that are believed to instil superficial performativity into user practices (Duffyand Gerrard, 2022), and has opened discussions around authenticity in the digital world of constructedself-presentation (DeVito and Birnholtz, 2017). In this changing landscape and given the growing presenceof social media in the everyday practices of young people, this project will explore how young peopleconceptualise authenticity and how this shapes their actions and interactions online and offline.From an educational perspective, this project positions authenticity as a vital part of developing digitalliteracy. The UK computing curriculum notes how in key stages 3 and 4, students should be digitallyliterate, "express themselves and develop their ideas through, information and communication technologyat a level suitable for the future workplace and as active participants in a digital world" (DfE, 2013:1). A keypart of learning to 'express themselves' and be 'active participants' is to navigate matters of authenticity,which are hard to conceptualise as these are partly subjective, partly contextual, and partly about1experimenting with and learning about their own preferential identities. The online and the offline areno-longer separate entities, and our identities in these realms intertwine (Arfini et al., 2021) and separatein subtle ways, creating the need to understand how authenticity or inauthenticity work in the context ofsocial media and contemporary lives for young people. Nonetheless authenticity is a largelyunder-researched and under-theorised concept, particularly in educational research. Given the increasingmoves of social media apps and designs towards authenticity in various forms, this project aims to fill thisgap in the research literature to better understand the importance of authenticity in young peoples' livesand what this means for education and digital literacy.This study is influenced by interpretivist design and will take a phenomenological approach to address theresearch gap. It will employ creative methods, utilising disposable cameras as cultural probes, by askingparticipants to take pictures of what they're doing at a certain time, 3 times a week, for a month. At theend of this month, I will undertake semi-structured interviews with the participants to discuss thesephotos, their views of 'authenticity', and their social media habits, allowing for an analysis about keyconceptualisations of authenticity and online norms. This will be repeated two more times over the spanof 6 months, with the final discussion ending with a focus group for participants. This will create a criticalworkshop for participants to discuss what they have noticed, what may have changed regarding their socialmedia presence, and their conceptualisations of authenticity.