Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar Sharing behaviours  Using social media (notably YouTube) to gain knowledge, educate themselves (including learning English), and seek online and offline education opportunities was a common theme among all young people.  Half of survey respondents reported posting selfies on social media, however, girls (particularly from rural villages) were less likely to do so.  No participants admitted to posting about the government or divisive issues (many said that they ‘wouldn’t dare’) but reported seeing such opinions posted by others, mainly in the comments of news story posts.  A common perception among adults was that young people often share controversial posts and stories without considering the consequences, while many young people thought that older adults were the ones who most often did this. Impact on daily lives and psychological well-being  Muslim IDP young people said seeing hate speech on social media made them feel sad, stressed, angry and hopeless. Despite this, many Muslim IDP young people said social media gave them a sense of escape from their camp, entertaining them when they felt sad and connecting them to the outside world. However, for some this reminder of the outside world just made them more upset.  Several Muslim IDP adults thought that social media played a positive role in the moral and religious education of their young people, many of whom had never attended a mosque or religious school due to their displacement. It also gave them a sense of hope by connecting them to people from other ethnicities who are working towards equality.  Overall, most young people thought that social media has both a positive and negative impact on their lives.  The most common positive impacts of social media on young people’s daily lives were the ability to connect with friends and relatives across distance, and the ability to gain knowledge.  The most common negative impacts were associated with fake news, harassment, hate speech, and other offensive content.  Some young people felt that social media was useful for dealing with stress and difficult emotions (e.g., viewing humorous or inspirational posts, posting poems or song lyrics that describe how they feel), and for exposing them to and helping them to understand other cultures. Impact on society  Social media may give young people an outlet to be more outspoken with their opinions and feelings.  Both young people and adults spoke of the addictive nature of social media (especially games for boys) and the impact that this was having on the quality and quantity of offline relationships with family and friends. The perception by some parents that phones were a waste of time and money was a common cause of family conflict.  Young people and adults both believed that social media has great potential to increase empathy and understanding between different groups in Myanmar society and foster peace and tolerance, with some saying that they had already learnt a lot about other cultures via Facebook. 9