We are thrilled to share that Abdulmalik Alluhidan, Ph.D. student at Vanderbilt University, and Dr. Pamela Wisniewski, Director of the Socio-Technical Interaction Research Lab, were recently featured in The Conversation for their CSCW 2024 research highlighting how social media design directly shapes the risks and benefits teens experience online.
Their article, titled “Social media design is key to protecting kids online,” breaks down nuanced findings from their latest study examining how platform-specific features — from Instagram’s algorithmic feeds to Snapchat’s ephemeral messaging — affect teen well-being, safety, and self-expression.
Key takeaways include:
🔹 Affordances matter – Teens’ experiences vary significantly based on design features such as visibility, ephemerality, and content curation.
🔹 Dual nature of platforms – Social media fosters both risks (e.g., cyberbullying, body-shaming) and supports (e.g., creativity, emotional coping).
🔹 Safety by design – Policymakers and platforms must prioritize design-based safety interventions rather than overly broad usage restrictions.
This work, supported by the National Science Foundation and the William T. Grant Foundation, calls for collaborative, evidence-based approaches to platform governance that center teens’ digital rights.
🧠 Read the full article here: link