Abstract

In the present context, in which social media is integrating adolescents’ lives, and engaging them in extensive online interactions, it is becoming essential to understand how they mentally construe their practices in social media and whether they are conscious of learning instances happening during their interactions. Such knowledge could enlighten parents about what captivates their children and practitioners about what captivates students’ attention. The literature in the domain points out to a scarcity in educational research focusing on adolescents’ use of social media. Therefore, this study strived to answer two questions. The first question and its sub-questions were: 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? And how do they construe their interactions with the social media apps they use inside their networks? The second question and its sub-question were: Are adolescents aware of instances of learning while in social media? And what type of learning do adolescents perceive as possible with social media? The research methodology I adopted consisted of a qualitative interpretive protocol in a grounded theory approach. Nine participants were recruited and engaged in semi-structured interviews and construct analysis interviews. Results show that adolescents had to tackle two challenges to thrive in social media. They had to “learn [to exist]” and “learn to [exist]” in order to ensure an advantageous online presence. Consequently, they were informally learning technical, socialization and managerial skills while using social media.