Conclusion

The aim of this dissertation has been to explore how young people were currently engaging with social media, and with that explore the potential for a youth work presence within social media. Social media is something so ubiquitous with our modern lifestyles that it cannot be ignored. Young people are the biggest users of social media with their mobile phones and social networking sites. Through this technology, young people can stay connected to their peers at all times, as well as meeting new peers, receive and create creative content. 

My first set of findings have shown that young people are major users of social media and are engaged with multiple forms of social media includes mobile phones, computers and media players. They show that mobile phones are allowing young people to not only engage with their peers but also create and share content. Young people are engaging in large social networks through applications like BBM and social networking sites like Facebook. These social networking sites have given young people a platform to articulate their social networks, maintain offline connections and share creative content. My findings suggest the possibility of young people having large social networks via social networking sites, but actually they are sacrificing face to face conversation in favour of online conversation. One major finding was the existence of young people being exposed to anonymous hate and cyber bullying through question based website Ask.fm. My findings provided evidence of claims that ask.fm had been connected to some young people committing suicide because of the anonymous abuse they received on the website. Plus they showed young people who were going through abuse. This was a real indicator of the potential risks to young people social media holds, and it is evidence that if youth workers are engaging with young people through the internet they must do so with caution. 

My second set of findings studied existing online youth work projects, both on an international and national level. We saw Netari, Finland’s online youth work solution and explored how it is implemented through message boards, chat rooms and email. Plus the “virtual youth centre” previously implemented. I also studied youth2youth, which featured young people being given advice by other trained young people. This project is the perfect example of young people’s empowerment through implementing new technologies. Through this project, the young people who are counselling are developing new skills and gaining confidence through helping their peers. The decisions for the project are decided in conjunction with the young people who work at the service and therefore the project delivers high levels of participation. 

I saw the highest levels of participation with Teen Second Life. With the virtual world is presents, young people could create and interact with an entire virtual world, while engaging with other young people across the world. One of the interesting findings from Teen Second Life however was evidence of offline world inequalities such as racism being transferred when entering the virtual world. This has implications for practice as it proves that existing youth work issues such as tackling inequalities still transcend virtual worlds, and likewise virtual youth work. This is something to consider in future development of virtual youth work.

The significance of my findings is the model of participation I developed to suit online youth work. This research acknowledges previous models which have attempted to categorise levels of participation but I believe my interpretation gives a simpler approach than previous models. The model seeks to develop existing youth work projects to implement an online presence of some form, depending on the level of engagement a project wishes to pursue. I hope to get feedback on the model from the blog and develop it further.

Within my own professional development I feel I have grown as a researcher and have contributed to my own knowledge on online youth work. It’s always been something I have been interested in and now I feel like I can implement different approaches of online youth work in my own practice. Social media has so many exciting opportunities