Activism throughout the 21st century has been greatly impacted by the growing relationship of technology and the political sphere. However, the impacts of social network sites (SNS) on the political mobilization of young racial minorities have not been analyzed. This project examines the impact of social media on contemporary activism amongst college students of color. More specifically, the study explores the psychological processes by which social media mobilizes college students of color to engage in activism. Survey data will be collected to measure social media use, political engagement, and demographic information (e.g., racial/ethnic background). An experiment will also be designed to test how mere exposure of political content on social media promotes mobilization. Lastly, interviews will be conducted that focus on UCLA students who lead politically active organizations (e.g., MEChA) to investigate how they used social media to organize political activism during the 2020 George Floyd protests. The findings will provide greater insight into how social media contributes to contemporary activism, and if it increases political engagement within youth of color. With this insight, political scientists will be able to explain and further promote patterns of online interaction, in order to influence political participation, on and off the screen.

Social media apps that are currently popular with adolescents include TikTok, Snapchat, and Instagram. Surveys have shown that 90% of teens use these apps as reported by the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (2018). The growth of underaged social media users is concerning due to the addictive potential of these platforms. According to Hillard (2019) at the Addiction Center, excessive social media usage can be harmful for children and negatively impact their mental health and interpersonal relationships because their brains and social skills are still developing. The purpose of this study is to examine, from the parents’ perspective, the impact social media usage has on the parent-child relationship and on their child’s academic performance. To fulfill this purpose, a survey has been constructed and distributed on Amazon Mechanical Turk. Participants are parents over the age of 18. They are asked to describe observations they have made regarding the amount of time their child spends on social media per day and their beliefs regarding the affect it has on the child’s academic performance. Additionally, participants are asked about their observations and opinions regarding social media use during family time. It is hypothesized that, if children exhibit signs of social media addiction, parents will have a negative perception on the quality of the parent-child relationship. It is also predicted that parents’ report of academic performance will be negatively correlated with reports of time spent on social media per day.

Social media and its positive or negative impact have been up for question since its emergence. It not only provides entertainment, but business opportunities and the benefits of it seem so substantial that its negative effects are rarely discussed. One such impact would be the effects of social media on young women and their self-image. In this study, the perception of cis-gender females, ages 18-25, and their belief of whether or not they have an eating disorder will be assessed. Does social media cloud the mind of what is considered a “healthy diet,” or starvation? Does social media encourage body checking, a component of eating disorders brought on by unrealistic standards of beauty? A survey has been created and distributed on Amazon Mechanical Turk (MTurk) addressing demographics (sex, gender, age, and ethnicity), how many hours spent on social media, and the type of content engaged in (food, comedy, fitness, etcetera). Questions on eating disorder symptoms and body checking behaviors were analyzed using the Eating Disorder Examination-Questionnaire (EDE-Q) developed by Fairburn & Beglin (1994) and the Body Checking Questionnaire (BCQ) developed by Reas et al. (2002). It is hypothesized that an increased amount of social media consumption and increased endorsement in influencers (celebrities, models, personalities), fitness, food, beauty, health/diet, and fashion will correlate positively with body checking behaviors and eating disorder symptomatology. With this increase in social media consumption, body checking behaviors, and eating disorder symptomatology, the participant will not perceive they have an eating disorder.