Training School Activities to Promote a Conscious Use of Social

Media and Human Development According to the Ecological Systems

Theory

Giovanni Fulantelli

, Lidia Scifo

1,2 b

and Davide Taibi

Institute for Educational Technology, National Research Council of Italy, Via Ugo La Malfa 153, Palermo, Italy

Department of Human Sciences, LUMSA University, Palermo, Italy

Keywords: Social Media, Training School Activities, Ecological Systems Theory, Human Development, Adolescents.

Abstract: The analysis of the scientific literature suggests interesting results both on the positive and negative

consequences of the use of the internet and social media during human development, during the school age.

Yet several studies underline the need to consider Internet as a life context, therefore mediated by

environmental factors, that can influence human development. In this article we emphasize the importance of

the "educability" of the Internet and social media environments following an ecological perspective. In this

regard, according to Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory of human development, we argue that it is

possible to educate the school microsystem through specific training activities and innovative tools that assist

students in analysing the effects of Web content personalization, understanding the algorithms controlling the

social media mechanisms, and realising how toxic content propagate on the Web.

1 INTRODUCTION

Many scholars have analysed the impact of the

Internet on everyday life, and in many studies the

Internet is considered as one of the greatest

discoveries of the last century (Montalcini, 2005). In

fact, the Internet has triggered a change of paradigm

in the scientific world, in the society, in the

development of relationships between people and, in

general, in the context of life (Kuhn, 1972).

The evolution of the Internet-based technologies

has brought to the development of solutions that have

profoundly changed the way we live, from the World

Wide Web to the platforms for remote work, from

open resource repositories to online learning

solutions, and so on. The advent of social media

represents another milestone in the history of Internet,

opening up to profound reflections on the

"virtualization" of relationships and their growing

importance in everyday life.

Some authors argue that internet should no longer

be considered as a tool to connect to a virtual reality

that is separate from the real world, but as a place in

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4098-8311

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0876-668X

https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0785-6771

which users live daily (Carr, 2011; Musetti et al.,

2016; Taymur et al., 2016). This has been emphasized

in the last year when the outbreak of the COVID-19

pandemic has affected, at different levels, any sector

of the society including education. Face to face

activities have been notably reduced and in certain

cases completely banned, and several activities that

were conducted in presence before the pandemic

spreading, have been performed remotely through

Internet-based technological solutions (Király et al.,

2020).

In this perspective, a new concept of the Internet

that takes its environmental features into account is

needed (Musetti et al., 2016; Musetti et al., 2018;

Musetti & Corsano, 2018). Furthermore, it is

necessary to analyse the concept of the internet and

then the world of social media.

The Bronfenbrenner's ecological systems theory

of human development (1976; 1978; 2001; 2001) fits

perfectly this new perspective on the internet and the

social media environments. In fact, the opportunities

offered by the Internet-based technologies are

different from older “technologies”, and the theory

Fulantelli, G., Scifo, L. and Taibi, D.

Training School Activities to Promote a Conscious Use of Social Media and Human Development According to the Ecological Systems Theory.

DOI: 10.5220/0010513005170524

In Proceedings of the 13th Inter national Conference on Computer Supported Education (CSEDU 2021) - Volume 1, pages 517-524

ISBN: 978-989-758-502-9

517

argues that humans have the ability to respond

constructively and often progressively to the changes

introduced by the specific reference context.

In the Bronfenbrenner's model, the life of each

person is immersed in a specific environment or a

system where each element is linked to all the others

through a relationship of interdependence, so that

every change in one part influences all the others. The

development of a child is favored by participation in

different environmental contexts with different

educational opportunities. Amongst them, the school

environment represents an essential opportunity for

children, precisely because at school they experience

environments rich in educational affordances and

resources.

Johnson (2010) reprises the Bronfenbrenner's

theory to fulfill the needs of conceptualizing Internet

use in school age: Internet use in school age occurs in

three contexts: home, school and community. “From

an ecological perspective, Internet use in an

environment influences Internet use in other

environments" (Johnson, 2010, p. 9). In fact, the time

spent by students on the Internet has undergone a

steep rise in recent years, especially because of the

virtual/social relationships developed through the

social media (Burnett & Wilkinson, 2005). As far as

the use of social media amongst young people is

concerned, there are many downsides but "there is

mounting evidence that using the Internet provides

children with cognitive and social benefits"

(Greenfield & Yan, 2006). In order to further

investigate this issue, and on the basis of these

theoretical premises, our research work is aimed at

analyzing the "educability" of the internet

environment framed in the ecological systems theory.

In this article we focus on the Internet-based solutions

mostly used by children and adolescents, including

social media, the risks connected to their use, and the

educational potential of these environments. In

particular, since the school system has a central role

in the education process, we propose specific

educational moments integrated with innovative tools

that can make students aware of the potential and risks

of the technological instruments and support them in

the conscious use of Internet and social media.

2 ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM

THEORY, INTERNET AND

SOCIAL MEDIA

The ecological systems theory of human

development, also known as theory of "human

ecology", was originally formulated and continually

revised by Bronfenbrenner (1976; 1978; 2001), in

order to facilitate the understanding of the dynamic

interrelationships between the various personal and

environmental factors affecting human development.

In his theory Bronfenbrenner (1978) postulated that,

in order to understand human development, the entire

ecological system in which a person grows must be

considered. Specifically, Bronfenbrenner (2001;

2006) organized the environment of child

development into five nested environmental systems

(macro, eco, meso, micro and chrono) with bi-

directional influences within and between systems.

In one of the main revisions of his theory,

Bronfenbrenner recognized the relevance of the

biological and genetic aspects of a person for the

purpose of human development, thus introducing his

bioecological theory of human development

(Bronfenbrenner, 2001).

The ecological systems theory provides a holistic

point of view of environmental influences on human

development and places the person within a system of

relationships with family, school, peer group

influencing each other. It is in this perspective that the

Internet and social media can be considered "places

of life" permeated with social relationships between

individuals and between individuals and the

environment.

In fact, Johnson and Puplampu (2008) have

extended the Bronfenbrenner model with the

ecological techno-subsystem, a dimension of the

microsystem that can better account for the increasing

use of technology in the age of development for

children and adolescents. The ecological techno-

subsystem is part of the microsystem like the family,

the school and the peers. As argued by the authors,

the techno-subsystem includes the child's interaction

with both "living" elements (peers, family,

classmates, etc.) and "non-living" elements, such as

the internet, the media, and so on (Johnson &

Puplampu, 2008).

In their model, Johnson & Puplampu do not

explicitly refer to the social media. However, by

considering the role that social media has taken on in

everyone's life, even among the youngest, we argue

that it is necessary to explicitly include social media

in the techno-subsystem. To this aim, we shortly

describe the 5 environmental systems identified by

Bronfenbrenner making explicit reference to some

examples of integration of social media in the model

(see Figure 1). The most external environmental

system is the macrosystem, that includes political and

economic concepts, the values of society and its

culture. In this sense, the complexes of beliefs and

CSEDU 2021 - 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

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behaviours that characterize the macrosystem are

transmitted from one generation to another through

the processes of dissemination, usability and

socialization of information that are supported by the

vastness of the internet environment. Social media

can also be an excellent tool to transmit cultural and

social knowledge between people and from one

generation to another (Tudge et al., 2009).

The exosystem is made up of the interconnection

between two or more environments which are not

directly related to the child but that can indirectly

influence him/her. For example, at this level we find

the neighbourhood, parent’s workplaces and parent’s

friends. Even in this case digital technologies support

interconnections through the social media use.

The mesosystem is characterized by the

relationship between microsystems. In this sense,

social media is a place for the promotion of

relationships. For example, two or more social

environments on the internet in which the subject

participates directly and actively.

The microsystem is the level within which the

children develop interpersonal relationships with

their immediate environment, such as peers, the

school and the family. A microsystem is a model of

interpersonal relationships, shared activities, roles,

and rules. Finally, the chronosystem highlights the

effect of time on all ecological systems and all

development processes, including the training

experiences to which students participate.

3 EDUCATIONAL SOCIAL

MEDIA IN THE ECOLOGICAL

SYSTEM MODEL

The ecological approach is intended as a lens through

which to observe and analyse the world of young

school students, even though the analysis of their

behaviour in social media. In fact, having in mind that

the different life environments in which a person lives

significantly affect his/her behaviour, people's

behaviour can be better understood when it is studied

through different levels of analysis (Edinete & Tudge,

2013). Furthermore, every system contains roles,

norms and rules that can shape psychological

development and offer educational opportunities

(Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006).

However, the Internet and social media have

become part of the Bronfenbrenner model quite

recently. This raises an important challenge: is it

possible, and how, to “educate” the microsystem

layer in order to make the most of the potential

Figure 1: Ecological system theory and the educational role

of training school activities.

offered by the Internet and social media yet avoiding

the risks connected to their use? We argue that, by

acting on the school microsystem through training

school activities, an educational change can be made

that supports aconscious use of social media.

Only by acting on the school microsystem can we

also act on the relationships with the family and peer

microsystem, as well as on other systems in the

Bronfenbrenner according to the principle of the

mutual influences among systems. Finally, an action

on the school microsystem can lead to long-term

positive changes in a person behaviour.

The school is a microsystem that can be educated

through specific activities to support changes in

people and the environment over time and that

support students in a conscious use of the social

media environments.

3.1 Internet and Social Media Threats

Few technologies have impacted education as the

Internet and social media have done. Research on

learning supported by internet technologies is

extremely rich. In particular, studies on social media

in formal and informal education have proliferated

over the last decade (Chen & Bryer, 2012; Mbati,

2013; Mao, 2014; Greenhow & Lewin, 2016; Selwyn

& Stirling, 2016). In fact, social media offer

important affordances for students’ learning, that

Greenhow, Galvin and Staudt Willet (2019)

summarize in: fostering active learning, enhancing

students’ collaboration, and increasing their

community connections. However, the potential

offered by these technologies could be compromised

by the risks associated with their use.

Training School Activities to Promote a Conscious Use of Social Media and Human Development According to the Ecological Systems

Theory

519

Actually, the risks to children and young people

of using social media have been widely discussed in

literature. Based on the analysis of the literature,

Willoughby (2018) has identified four areas of risk:

cyberbullying and online abuse, exposure to negative

forms of user-generated content (such as self-harm,

hate, pro-anorexia or sexually explicit content, also

known as toxic content), the converging of offline and

online networks, and developing interpretations of

privacy. The urgency of the risks deriving from the

use of social media is so evident that it has become

not only the subject of study by researchers, but also

of investigations and journalistic insights that have

allowed to open a debate at the society level.

The American docudrama film “The Social

Dilemma”, released in 2020, tackled the evolution of

social media and the increasing risks they triggered in

society. The documentary unveils how social media

leverages big data produced by their users, on top of

which executing sophisticated machine learning

algorithms in the background that impact decisions of

billions of people. As a consequence, social media are

alleged to manipulate their users thus inducing

different forms of addiction and affecting mental

health of adolescents.

Another risk originated by Artificial Intelligence

techniques is related to the recommendation

algorithms that are more and more implemented by

search engines and social media to filter the content

and draw the attention of users only to a selected

portion of Web content. The consequences of this

scenario are polarization, radicalization, and the

creation of filter bubbles and echo chambers (Pariser,

2011; Sunstein, 2018).

Internet and social media users are unwary of

these mechanisms, or at best they underestimate the

effects that these virtual environments have in real

life. Furthermore, these effects are more exacerbated

when it comes to adolescents. Actually, adolescents

are more exposed to the social media threats, since

they are unable to perceive the profoundly different

dynamics that govern offline and online networks.

The meaning and nature of friendships is altered by

social media insofar as the interactions and

connections children and young people make are not

contained to the physical boundaries of being present

with one another (Willoughby, 2018). Livingstone et

al.’s research indicated that 1 in 12 children have met

an online contact offline, with a further 30%

suggesting they have communicated with someone

they have not met face-to-face but have considered it

(Livingstone et al., 2011, p. 8). Moreover, the

uncontrolled convergence between offline and online

networks does not help the most emotionally fragile

subjects (this can happen in controlled contexts). The

evidence arising from most of the reviewed literature

suggests that in general, those with offline

vulnerabilities are most at risk of being harmed by

their online activity and that as offline and online

social networks converge, so do offline and online

problems (Willoughby, 2018). Children with low

self-esteem or unsatisfying friendships or parental

relations are considered higher risk from social

networking sites (Ballantyne et al., 2010; Kwan and

Skoric, 2013; O’Neill, Livingstone, & McLaughlin,

2011). Finally, Kwan and Skoric (2013) argue that in

relation to cyberbullying on Facebook in particular,

those likely to be bullied in school are also the most

likely to be bullied on Facebook.

The importance of the problem also arises from

studies that show how the age of subjects at risk is

getting lower and lower. In their study with 593

middle school students, Martin and colleagues (2018)

have found out that 17% of them started using social

media at age nine or younger, 40% accepted friend

requests from people they do not know, and 40%

reported that their parents did not monitor their social

media use.

In this scenario, in which the internet and the

social media are no longer intended as a tool but as a

"place" to live in, children and adolescents must be

educated to live in this environment. Training school

activities and specific tools that can support students

in a conscious and correct use of the internet

environment are presented in the next section.

4 TRAINING ACTIVITIES AND

TOOLS

Training school activities should be focused on

promoting proper use of social media as a living

environment characterized by positive and negative

aspects. In particular, the training activities should

aim at educating and supporting adolescents to face

specific problems that arise within social media. The

indiscriminate use of social media can lead to

discrimination, prejudice, the spread of hate speech,

violation of personal rights, psychological attacks,

symbolic violence, transmission of private views

without the consent of interested parties, deceiving

people with fake accounts, spreading negative speech

that they intend to abuse, as well as bullying,

harassment and insults along with the circulation of

malicious opinions and information on the Internet.

Furthermore, content that incorporates violence not

only produces negative effects on users, but also

CSEDU 2021 - 13th International Conference on Computer Supported Education

520

makes them quite dysfunctional. Therefore, the

training should aim at favouring students learning

strategies for avoiding the unconscious or

uncontrolled use of social media.

Furthermore, various constructs that characterize

the Internet as a new environment should be analysed,

in particular, interpersonal skills, self-esteem, self-

efficacy, resilience, problem solving skills,

motivational emotional aspects, internet addition. In

order to analyse these variables and the processes

underlying these constructs, specific methodologies,

such as structured interviews or already validated and

published questionnaires, can be used. For instance,

the following questionnaires are suitable for

collecting data related to the constructs introduced

above: The Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being

Scale (WEMWBS): development and UK validation

(Tennant, et al., 2007); Satisfaction with life scale

(Diener et al., 1985); Internet-related psychological

and psychopathological variables: construction and

preliminary validation of the U.A.D.I. survey (Del

Miglio et al., 2001); Mood and Feelings

Questionnaire (MFQ) (Angold & Costello, 1987);

Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) (Friborg et al.,

2003). Analysing the living environment of social

media through specific activities allows us to better

understand what the toxic contents are and what are

the positive aspects that must be highlighted and

enhanced in the new living environment.

4.1 Training Activities

Adopting a specific training programme is the first

step to allow students to develop adequate

competences to live in the Internet environment and

evolve within the school microsystem of the

ecological model. However, traditional learning

approaches are not adequate to engage students and

implementing learning actions aimed at educating

students for a proper use of social media is necessary.

The training activities should integrate specific

learning tasks with the use of appropriate tools and

devices. Training activities should be developed on

top of suitable learning content and immersive

experiences specifically designed to shed the lights on

the mechanisms behind the Internet environments and

social media. Tools and devices should be as close as

possible to the ones the students use every day. In this

perspective, for example, mobile devices and

smartphones should not be demonized or banned but

integrated into those learning activities aiming to

promote and increase awareness in the use of social

media.

In particular, we propose that the training

objectives should be focused on the three factors that

underlie the functioning mechanisms of the Internet-

based solutions and social media, and that, in turn,

can determine the risks highlighted in section 3: the

personalization of Web content, the effect of artificial

intelligent algorithms in social media, and toxic

content detection.

The personalization of Web content has the

positive effect of facilitating the retrieval of Web

resources by providing users with the content most

likely they are looking for. The increasing availability

of content on the Web has made this feature

indispensable. Therefore, search engines (such as

Google) or very common media platforms (such as

YouTube), have introduced this feature in their

procedures for content retrieval and presentation.

Users are usually informed of this characteristic,

through the Term of Services documents, even

though it is commonly ascertained that a very few

percentages of users take care of them. The problem

of overwhelming amounts of content is one of the

problems that social networks have to cope with when

it comes to improving users’ experience. To this aim,

artificial intelligence approaches are commonly

adopted to filter the content to be proposed to the

users. However, these approaches are often biased

and criticized to foster more users’ addiction than

users’ benefit.

Learning activities aimed at increasing students’

awareness have to use the appropriate tools to unveil

these mechanisms and to make students aware that

what they see in their favourite social platform is only

a portion of the content they could effectively access;

and, moreover, in most of the case this content is

polarized offering a limited view (on a social event

for instance) from only one angle.

Training activities should bring students in

practicing the effects of the approaches adopted by

the social media. In order to experiment these

mechanisms innovative and suitable tools have to be

introduced. In the following sections, we present

three different types of tools and the learning contexts

in which they can be effectively used.

4.2 Tools to Learn Web Content

Personalization

Tools in this category are designed to emphasize the

effects of recommender systems in proposing

personalized content to the users. For instance, in the

area of search engines this is reflected in different

ranked results depending on several factors such as:

the previous searches performed by users, the

Training School Activities to Promote a Conscious Use of Social Media and Human Development According to the Ecological Systems

Theory

521

localization of the content, cultural aspects, and so on.

All these factors contribute to filter the search results

and present them in different order according to their

assumed relevance, leading to a different perception

of reality. In (Taibi et al., 2020) authors present an

experiment in which students analysed the results of

search engines with respect to selected queries. The

effects of the polarization of the content were

investigated with the support of teachers.

In fact, appropriate tools to investigate those

factors are needed. In particular, it is important to

provide users with functionalities that support the

analysis of the search results, permitting comparisons

between results of the same user with the same search

keyword in different time (to answer the question

how does the search results change over time?), or to

analyse the results of the search of different users for

the same keyword (to answer the question, how does

the user profiles affect the search results?).

Investigating whether different search results are

shown according to the cultural aspects (most of the

time expressed with the location and the language

used to perform the search) is also relevant. In fact,

search engines have been proven to be effective to

support social research (Fulantelli et al., 2016; Taibi

et al., 2017; Taibi et al., 2019).

The role of teachers is also relevant to guide

students in the analysis. Teachers should highlight the

presence of mechanisms used by search engines to

propose the results. Moreover, teachers should invite

students in developing critical thinking processes, by

looking at the search results critically.

4.3 Controlled Social Networks

The effects of the artificial intelligent algorithms used

by social networks to present content to their users

cannot be analysed within the social network, for

several reasons. First of all, they use different

algorithms, very often in combination between them

and, as in the case of search engines, they do not

reveal the secret receipt they use to elaborate content

in background. These algorithms work as a black box,

sometimes different algorithms are used for different

groups of users, trying to unveil how these algorithms

work by using the real social networks is very

complex and specific tools are needed.

In (Puvia et al., 2020) authors propose the

customization of an open-source alternative to

Instagram to study the effects of different algorithms

in showing the content to the users. This tool has the

same functionalities of a common social network, it

is possible to create a personal profile, manage a list

of friends, and publish posts. In this way, students use

a platform to which they are familiar, equipped with

the same features of those that they use every day.

The advantages of this solution are twofold: firstly, it

creates a closed environment in which all the

variables can be taken controlled and analysed,

secondly the effects of each algorithm can be studied

separately before and in combination afterwards.

Moreover, the use of an open-source solution

allowed a high level of customization in

implementing the different algorithms and in

extending the platform to include new functionalities

to monitor students’ activities.

The availability of closed environments, with

similar functionalities to the ones that students are

familiar to use, allows teachers and researchers to

investigate students’ interactions as they happen in a

real context, and allows students to better understand

how the content publishing changes according to the

tuning of parameters of the same algorithms.

4.4 Virtual Assistants

Coping with the different types of risks that intervene

in social networks could be particularly complex for

students that in adolescence faced already one

important period of their development. This is also

more critical when it comes to early school children

accessing the social network with a profile most of

the time cheating their age. In this case, the

algorithms used by social network to prevent the

access to toxic content are less effective since they are

not specifically designed for this age range.

A solution comes from the use of virtual assistants

that counteract the artificial intelligence of social

media environments with the same weapon. In the last

few years, virtual assistants have been developed to

support students and adolescents in general when

interacting with social media (Courage, 2019).

Virtual assistants filter the content proposed by the

social network hindering the spread of toxic content.

Moreover, they integrate educational activities

including gamification and questionnaires aimed at

identifying the situations at risk, exactly when they

happen. These tools use AI algorithms to recognize

toxic content and help students in interacting properly

with them.

5 CONCLUSIONS

The Internet and the social media have created new

forms of sharing and have greatly speeded up the

development of links between people, providing

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522

undisputed advantages in terms of educational

affordances and sociality.

However, further research is needed to prove that

Internet-based technologies and social media are

appropriately designed to support intra and

interpersonal relationships of young people and not

only. In this article we underline the importance of the

"educability" of the internet and social media

environment by following an ecological perspective.

In this regard, according to Bronfenbrenner's

ecological systems model, it is possible to promote

educational actions at the school microsystem level.

Amongst them, specific training activities, when

conducted in a functional way, can support students

in acquiring a constructive and responsible use of the

Internet environment and social media.

In this paper we have proposed training activities,

integrated with innovative software tools, that assist

students in analysing the effects of Web content

personalization, understanding the algorithms

controlling the social media mechanisms, and

realising how toxic content propagate on the Web.

Future perspectives of our study concern two

main aspects; firstly, the age of students to which

address the learning actions; secondly, the

microsystems to be involved in the analysis of the

interactions between students and social media. As

far as the first aspect is concerned, it should be noted

that in the last few years, several educational actions

aimed at thwarting the spread of dangerous

behaviours amongst students have been undertaken.

The privileged target group of these actions is made

of adolescents, since generally social media (e.g.

Facebook) requires users to be at least 13 years old.

However, the actual age of users accessing the social

media for the first time is lower than the one fixed by

the companies. This consideration motivates the

introduction of specific multiliteracy actions aimed at

younger children (e.g. middle and primary school

students).

Concerning the second aspect, we argue that the

role of other microsystems such as the peers and the

family, in addition to the school, must be investigated.

This is necessary to better analyse the relationships

between the students’ development and the use of

Internet and social media. In fact, according to

Bronfenbrenner’s theory, the relationship between

microsystems is fundamental for understanding the

development trend of each student.

Furthermore, the theory argues that every

environment is rich in educational resources that

support the human development. In this regard, each

microsystem must support the other microsystems in

order to favor the growth of each student.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work has been developed in the framework of

the project COURAGE - A social media companion

safeguarding and educating students (no. 95567),

funded by the Volkswagen Foundation in the topic

Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future.

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