Unga vuxnas syn på offentligt finansierade sociala medier : Potentiella syften, funktioner och skillnader jämfört med kommersiella plattformar

Sammanfattning: As many of the issues associated with large commercial social media platforms can be attributed to their business models, it is important to explore platforms with alternative business models. Therefore, this study explores how young adults, aged 18-30, envision a Swedish publicly funded social media platform in terms of its purpose and functionality, the difference compared to commercial platforms, and how young adults view its potential implementation in Sweden in 2023. Two workshops were conducted with seven and six participants respectively. The workshops were structured around a counterfactual scenario; an alternative historical narrative designed to help participants reason about publicly funded social media. The collected data, consisting of recordings of the workshops, were analyzed using thematic analysis. Our findings show that participants viewed the potential implementation of publicly funded social media in Sweden positively. They envisioned it primarily serving the purposes of fostering community and facilitating communication. Participants thought of publicly funded social media as a tool rather than entertainment, with features such as chats, forums, groups, and event management. They believed that recommendation algorithms would be less prevalent on a publicly funded platform compared to commercial platforms, resulting in less social media addiction. Furthermore, concerns were raised regarding state surveillance, anonymity, and moderation on publicly funded social media. Based on our results, we encourage further research on publicly funded social media and propose that Swedish authorities and/or public service companies explore its possibilities. Additionally, we recommend the application of participatory futures and counterfactual scenarios in further studies on social media, to involve more stakeholders in shaping the future digital landscape.