2026
Gairola, Ritika; Gray, Colin M; Dong, Jingxin; Jeong, Kyung Jin; Otenen, Ege; Sarria, Juan J
"Social Media Killed Our Generation": Teenagers' Felt Experiences of Harm on Social Media Best Paper Proceedings Article
In: CHI '26: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems Proceedings, Association for Computing Machinery, 2026.
Abstract | Links | BibTeX | Tags: Dark Patterns, Harm, Legal and Policy Perspectives, Social Media, Teenagers
@inproceedings{Gairola2026-do,
title = {"Social Media Killed Our Generation": Teenagers' Felt Experiences of Harm on Social Media},
author = {Ritika Gairola and Colin M Gray and Jingxin Dong and Kyung Jin Jeong and Ege Otenen and Juan J Sarria},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3772318.3791519
https://colingray.me/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/2026_Gairolaetal_CHI_TeenagersHarmSocialMedia.pdf},
doi = {10.1145/3772318.3791519},
year = {2026},
date = {2026-01-01},
urldate = {2026-01-01},
booktitle = {CHI '26: CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Proceedings},
publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery},
abstract = {Social media platforms are deeply embedded in teenagers' daily
lives, shaping their identities, relationships, and leisure time
while introducing risks such as social pressure, harmful content,
and addiction. While attention capture mechanisms and dark
patterns are increasingly recognized as contributors to the harm
these platforms perpetuate, teenagers' own experiences of harm
remain underexplored. In this study, we report on analysis of
eight interviews with participants aged 12-17, revealing how
their desire to be a ``normal teen'' shapes their lives, how they
experience and interpret harms, and how ecologies of use
influence mitigation strategies. Our findings reveal that
teenagers frequently attribute responsibility to themselves or
other teens rather than the designed affordances of the platform.
We contribute a detailed account of potential behavioral and
attentional harms that further situates ``what counts as harm''
within contemporary technology governance debates, emphasizing
the need for design alternatives that balance safety, agency, and
meaningful engagement.},
keywords = {Dark Patterns, Harm, Legal and Policy Perspectives, Social Media, Teenagers},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {inproceedings}
}
Social media platforms are deeply embedded in teenagers' daily
lives, shaping their identities, relationships, and leisure time
while introducing risks such as social pressure, harmful content,
and addiction. While attention capture mechanisms and dark
patterns are increasingly recognized as contributors to the harm
these platforms perpetuate, teenagers' own experiences of harm
remain underexplored. In this study, we report on analysis of
eight interviews with participants aged 12-17, revealing how
their desire to be a ``normal teen'' shapes their lives, how they
experience and interpret harms, and how ecologies of use
influence mitigation strategies. Our findings reveal that
teenagers frequently attribute responsibility to themselves or
other teens rather than the designed affordances of the platform.
We contribute a detailed account of potential behavioral and
attentional harms that further situates ``what counts as harm''
within contemporary technology governance debates, emphasizing
the need for design alternatives that balance safety, agency, and
meaningful engagement.
lives, shaping their identities, relationships, and leisure time
while introducing risks such as social pressure, harmful content,
and addiction. While attention capture mechanisms and dark
patterns are increasingly recognized as contributors to the harm
these platforms perpetuate, teenagers' own experiences of harm
remain underexplored. In this study, we report on analysis of
eight interviews with participants aged 12-17, revealing how
their desire to be a ``normal teen'' shapes their lives, how they
experience and interpret harms, and how ecologies of use
influence mitigation strategies. Our findings reveal that
teenagers frequently attribute responsibility to themselves or
other teens rather than the designed affordances of the platform.
We contribute a detailed account of potential behavioral and
attentional harms that further situates ``what counts as harm''
within contemporary technology governance debates, emphasizing
the need for design alternatives that balance safety, agency, and
meaningful engagement.