These design sessions are part of the broader SpaceTeen project. In SpaceTeen, researchers, designers and young people work together towards a social‑media environment that works for you rather than against you: less distraction, more room and support for what you think is important.
Young people struggle with their social media use
Sindy Sumter is Associate Professor of Communication Science and the project lead for SpaceTeen. In her lectures, she noticed that students increasingly said they use social media too much yet find it hard to stop. That struggle prompted the question: how can we support young people and redesign social media itself? Together with designer Marcel Schouwenaar, this idea grew into SpaceTeen – a large consortium of youth and media researchers, designers, civil‑society organisations and companies.
At SpaceTeen, designing for young people means designing with young people. Sumter explains: ‘Young people have a right to a say in the (digital) environment in which they grow up – including their social media. And if you really want to understand what works, you have to talk to young people and design with them. Otherwise, you end up creating a solution that nobody uses.’
What’s wrong in current social‑media design
Scrollternatives is one of SpaceTeen’s pilots. This project is in collaboration with digital design agency TodayTomorrow and marketing agency YoungMedia. In this project, researchers, designers and young people look together for design choices that can replace current, addictive elements.
Sumter lists the addictive elements in the current design of social‑media platforms: