Social Media and Development: Constructing the Self Online
EDST 333
Spring 2023
| Section:
01
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| Crosslisting:
PSYC 303 |
Humans typically develop their view of themselves, or their self-concept, through interactions with others in their community. For adolescents, this takes place typically within school environments and other community institutions as they begin to rely less on their parents. With the dawn of social media, these interactions are taking place on a global scale with increased anonymity. How does this social and technological change impact how teens and young adults form their views of themselves? What implications do these changes have for adults who work with adolescent populations? This course will explore these questions, illuminating an understanding of the accepted model of self-concept development and the impacts of social media. Students will also explore related concepts of self-esteem and social development. This course will use empirical research to examine and critique the overall negative view of social media usage amongst adolescents, and train students to probe commonly accepted viewpoints using careful scholarship. The course will provide a discussion of research standards in the field of social media research and encourage critical evaluation of empirical research. |
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| Credit: 1 |
Gen Ed Area Dept:
SBS EDST |
| Course Format: Seminar | Grading Mode: Graded |
| Level: UGRD |
Prerequisites: None |
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Fulfills a Major Requirement for: (EDST-MN)(EDST)(PSYC) |
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Past Enrollment Probability: Less than 50% |
| SECTION 01 |
Major Readings: Wesleyan RJ Julia Bookstore
Curated journal articles and chapters available via Moodle. Sample readings include:
Besharat Mann, R., & Blumberg, F. (2022). Adolescents and social media: The effects of frequency of use, self-presentation, social comparison, and self-esteem on possible self-imagery. Acta Psychologica, 228, 103629.
Course-Choi, J., & Hammond, L. (2021). Social media use and adolescent well-being: A narrative review of longitudinal studies. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 24(4), 223-236.
Michikyan, M., & Suárez-Orozco, C. (2016). Adolescent media and social media use:
Implications for development. Journal of Adolescent Research, 31(4), 411-414.
Thorisdottir, I. E., Sigurvinsdottir, R., Asgeirsdottir, B. B., Allegrante, J. P., & Sigfusdottir, I. D. (2019). Active and passive social media use and symptoms of anxiety and depressed mood among Icelandic adolescents. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 22(8), 535-542.
Valkenburg, P. M., Meier, A., & Beyens, I. (2022). Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review of the evidence. Current opinion in psychology, 44, 58-68.
Embedded readings:
boyd, D. (2014). It's complicated: The social lives of networked teens. New Haven :Yale University Press
Twenge, J. M. (2017). iGen: Why today's super-connected kids are growing up less rebellious, more tolerant, less happy--and completely unprepared for adulthood--and what that means for the rest of us. Simon and Schuster.
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Examinations and Assignments:
Weekly reading load: Students should expect 1-3 book chapters and at least 3 journal articles per week with written response components
Book club discussions
Discussion Leads: Students will lead a portion of a class session to critically analyze readings and engage the class in meaningful discussions.
Final synthesis project: This project can be done through a variety of mediums, but roughly follows the format of an in-depth literature review |
Additional Requirements and/or Comments:
This course counts towards the Category 1 requirement for the Education Studies major or minor, or as an elective towards the psychology major. |
| Instructor(s): Besharat Mann,Rachel Times: ....R.. 01:20PM-04:10PM; Location: HALL84; |
| Total Enrollment Limit: 24 | | SR major: 8 | JR major: 8 | | |
| Seats Available: 1 | GRAD: X | SR non-major: 0 | JR non-major: 0 | SO: 8 | FR: 0 |
| Drop/Add Enrollment Requests | | | | | |
| Total Submitted Requests: 19 | 1st Ranked: 5 | 2nd Ranked: 0 | 3rd Ranked: 3 | 4th Ranked: 1 | Unranked: 10 |
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