“I'm just sitting there scrolling mindlessly”: A qualitative enquiry into international student’s social media uses and engagement practices.
(2025) SIMZ51 20251Graduate School
- Abstract
- This thesis explores how female international students at Lund University engage with social media platforms and perceive the growing presence of AI-generated content. The study aims to understand how past digital experiences- particularly negative ones such as online bullying, judgment, or privacy violations, influence current usage patterns, coping strategies, and interactions with algorithmic systems. Through a multimethod qualitative design combining semi-structured interviews, the use of screen-time as an elicitation tool, and media go-along’s, the research captures both reflective and real-time dimensions of participants’ digital lives. Findings reveal that early internet experiences play a formative role in shaping present-day... (More)
- This thesis explores how female international students at Lund University engage with social media platforms and perceive the growing presence of AI-generated content. The study aims to understand how past digital experiences- particularly negative ones such as online bullying, judgment, or privacy violations, influence current usage patterns, coping strategies, and interactions with algorithmic systems. Through a multimethod qualitative design combining semi-structured interviews, the use of screen-time as an elicitation tool, and media go-along’s, the research captures both reflective and real-time dimensions of participants’ digital lives. Findings reveal that early internet experiences play a formative role in shaping present-day practices. Present-day usage is characterised by high usage with some respondents expressing concern about being chronically online. To mitigate habitual use, participants demonstrated agentic forms of digital self-protection, such as using ephemeral media, and strategically navigating platform algorithms to avoid ‘addiction,’ visibility or emotional harm. These behaviours are best understood through a technofeminist lens, which foregrounds how gender, digital history intersect to influence user agency within socio-technical systems. By centring a digitally literate, high-agency cohort often overlooked in digital media research, this study contributes to broader scholarly conversations in feminist technology studies, critical algorithm studies, and digital migration research. It challenges dominant narratives of passive digital consumption and calls attention to the structural inequalities embedded in platform design and AI systems. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9208093
- author
- Ntini, Nolwazi Nozipho Nonkululeko LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SIMZ51 20251
- year
- 2025
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- Generative AI, internet histories, social media, internation students, technofeminism
- language
- English
- id
- 9208093
- date added to LUP
- 2025-07-28 13:47:13
- date last changed
- 2025-07-28 13:47:13
@misc{9208093,
abstract = {{This thesis explores how female international students at Lund University engage with social media platforms and perceive the growing presence of AI-generated content. The study aims to understand how past digital experiences- particularly negative ones such as online bullying, judgment, or privacy violations, influence current usage patterns, coping strategies, and interactions with algorithmic systems. Through a multimethod qualitative design combining semi-structured interviews, the use of screen-time as an elicitation tool, and media go-along’s, the research captures both reflective and real-time dimensions of participants’ digital lives. Findings reveal that early internet experiences play a formative role in shaping present-day practices. Present-day usage is characterised by high usage with some respondents expressing concern about being chronically online. To mitigate habitual use, participants demonstrated agentic forms of digital self-protection, such as using ephemeral media, and strategically navigating platform algorithms to avoid ‘addiction,’ visibility or emotional harm. These behaviours are best understood through a technofeminist lens, which foregrounds how gender, digital history intersect to influence user agency within socio-technical systems. By centring a digitally literate, high-agency cohort often overlooked in digital media research, this study contributes to broader scholarly conversations in feminist technology studies, critical algorithm studies, and digital migration research. It challenges dominant narratives of passive digital consumption and calls attention to the structural inequalities embedded in platform design and AI systems.}},
author = {{Ntini, Nolwazi Nozipho Nonkululeko}},
language = {{eng}},
note = {{Student Paper}},
title = {{“I'm just sitting there scrolling mindlessly”: A qualitative enquiry into international student’s social media uses and engagement practices.}},
year = {{2025}},
}