Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar and adolescence from making social media profiles until after they finished their matriculation exams; on the other, both young people and their parents understood digital learning as an essential means of self-development and improvement. This led to another critical finding for the study team, that social media profiles (including Facebook) are not necessarily seen as a digital reflection of a singular offline person. Rather, different accounts are used for different online activities: the same person might keep one profile for reading news, another for conducting business, and still another for sharing videos and memes. That a single person might use multiple profiles is not seen as malicious or duplicitous, but rather, as a means of curating one’s online experience. This finding, that western notions of identity and privacy might not map directly onto Myanmar internet use, has important implications for campaigns seeking to mitigate the effects of fake news and hate speech, as well as for those who aim to improve digital safety and security. Youth-led participatory research on social cohesion in urban areas Organisation/Author: Irena Grizelj for Search for Common Ground (SFCG) Date: May 2018 Relevance: This report (Grizelj, 2018) focused on the role of both mainstream and social media in shaping public opinion and mobilising people in Myanmar, but given its focus on young people in a conflict affected area (Lashio) its findings are still highly relevant to the current study. SFCG conducted the research to inform a 12-month long programme of radio and TV content to promote acceptance of diversity as a social norm in Myanmar, and to build social cohesion and intercommunal harmony. The study concludes that the prevalence of social media use – particularly Facebook – by young people should indicate that social, rather than traditional, media channels are the best means to engage and influence young people on these issues. Methodology and limitations: 52 young researchers were given brief training in qualitative research approaches and deployed to Yangon and Lashio. The latter was chosen to better understand the experience of urban youth living in close proximity to armed conflict. Over 5 days, gender balanced teams overseen by a lead international consultant interviewed more than 500 respondents in total, sourced through a snowball approach. They were guided by SFCG’s ‘Youth Mapping Methodology Toolkit’ and its ‘Listening and Learning Approach’, both designed with youth-centred research in mind. The main limitations were: the inexperience of the researchers, leading to a lack of depth in the qualitative data; restricted time to train (4 days) and deploy (5 days) the research teams; and a lack of diversity in the research respondents, attributed to the snowball approach, which relied on personal networks of the researchers who were mostly of a similar educational and economic background. Key findings: In addition to useful statistics for this demographic drawn from a relatively large sample size, this study provides insight into the experience, concerns, and aspirations of young people in two very different urban areas in Myanmar. While young people in Yangon are similarly exposed to poverty, crime, and drug issues, they are spared the direct and indirect impacts of armed conflict that affects the daily life of young people in Lashio. The report provides a helpful overview of the key concerns of young people in both areas – crime, drugs, lack of opportunity, and sexual harassment – which should be appreciated when designing any intervention. It also gives an insight into how young people mobilise for causes to benefit their community, including interfaith and social harmony initiatives. The study found that the main channel through which young people mobilise and connect is Facebook – as noted by 80% of respondents. Additional insight into the exact means of connecting, i.e., through messenger, private groups, pages, or public timelines, weren’t gathered. Young people’s attitudes towards the role and influence of social media was a key focus of the study, with Facebook emerging as one of the most influential sources of young people’s opinions, on a par with peers/friends and teachers (but still below parents). Respondents were asked to reflect on both the positive and negative role it could play in community cohesion. Over a quarter felt that social media has increased openness and decreased tensions, while over 20% felt that there are negative impacts and increased tensions as a result. 16