The debate on whether social media has a net positive or negative effect on youth is ongoing. Therefore, we conducted a thematic analysis on 2,061 posts made by 1,038 adolescents aged 15-17 on an online peer-support platform to investigate the ways in which these teens discussed popular social media platforms in their posts and to identify differences in their experiences across platforms. Our findings revealed four main emergent themes for the ways in which social media was discussed: 1) Sharing negative experiences or outcomes of social media use (58%, n = 1,095), 2) Attempts to connect with others (45%, n = 922), 3) Highlighting the positive side of social media use (20%, n = 409), and 4) Seeking information (20%, n = 491). Overall, while sharing about negative experiences was more prominent, teens also discussed balanced perspectives of connection-seeking, positive experiences, and information support on social media that should not be discounted. Moreover, we found statistical significance for how these experiences differed across social media platforms. For instance, teens were most likely to seek romantic relationships on Snapchat and self-promote on YouTube. Meanwhile, Instagram was mentioned most frequently for body shaming, and Facebook was the most commonly discussed platform for privacy violations (mostly from parents). The key takeaway from our study is that the benefits and drawbacks of teens' social media usage can co-exist and net effects (positive or negative) can vary across different teens across various contexts. As such, we advocate for mitigating the negative experiences and outcomes of social media use as voiced by teens, to improve, rather than limit or restrict, their overall social media experience. We do this by taking an affordance perspective that aims to promote the digital well-being and online safety of youth "by design."

翻译：关于社交媒体对青少年总体影响是积极还是消极的争论仍在持续。为此，我们对1038名15-17岁青少年在在线同伴支持平台上发布的2061条帖子进行了主题分析，旨在探究这些青少年如何在帖子中讨论主流社交媒体平台，并识别不同平台间体验的差异。研究发现，青少年讨论社交媒体时主要呈现四个主题：1) 分享社交媒体使用的负面体验或后果（58%，n = 1095）；2) 尝试与他人建立联系（45%，n = 922）；3) 强调社交媒体使用的积极面（20%，n = 409）；4) 寻求信息支持（20%，n = 491）。总体而言，虽然负面体验的分享更为突出，但青少年也讨论了寻求联结、积极体验和信息支持等平衡视角，这些同样值得重视。此外，我们发现不同社交媒体平台间的体验差异具有统计学显著性。例如，青少年最常在Snapchat上寻求恋爱关系，在YouTube上进行自我推广；Instagram被提及最多的是身体羞辱相关经历；而Facebook则是最常被讨论涉及隐私侵犯（主要来自父母）的平台。本研究的关键启示在于：青少年社交媒体使用的益处与弊端可以共存，且不同青少年在不同情境下的净效应（积极或消极）存在差异。因此，我们主张通过采纳"可供性"设计视角，着力缓解青少年所反映的负面体验与后果，从而改善而非限制其整体社交媒体体验，以"通过设计"促进青少年的数字福祉与在线安全。