Youth Data Literacy: Teen Perspectives on Data Created with Social Media and Mobile Devices

Abstract

This paper examines how American teens conceptualize the term "data" in the context of social and mobile media like Instagram and Snapchat, or text messaging and cell phone video. Using interview and ethnographic data from a series of interviews with teens, 11 to 18 held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania public libraries over 2016-2017, we report findings about how teens learn about data through the use of social media platforms, the creation of mobile media, and the ownership of mobile devices; the implications that using networked platforms and wireless technology has for contemporary understandings of data literacy; and finally, what this means for teaching and researching the acquisition of data skills. The paper presents findings about how teens learn and acquire knowledge about the interactive and social processes of the data life cycle in public spaces and in online platforms, particularly learning about data awareness through sharing, aging, and owning mobile computing devices.