Mobile Myanmar: The Impact of Social Media on Young People Living in Conflict-Affected Regions of Myanmar Strengths and limitations A mixed method approach allowed for the collection of both quantitative survey data regarding how young people in Myanmar engage with social media, and qualitative insights into the impact social media has on their daily lives. All research tools and materials were piloted, first in Yangon and then again in Loikaw and Sittwe, leading to effective suggestions to improve materials before the study began, and ensure they were regionally appropriate. The FGDs were necessarily lengthy but proved to be highly engaging for participants. Games and activities (e.g., quizzes, analysis of visual examples of social media posts, drawing examples of what they have seen on social media) were successful in relating topics of interest to participants’ experiences, and keeping them engaged over a long period. KIIs with young people, adults and community elders provided valuable detail to supplement the FGDs. Both the FGDs and KIIs were conducted by two trained and experienced Research Associates, who alternated between facilitator and notetaking duties. All sessions were recorded for future reference, however full transcripts were not possible due to budget and time constraints. Instead, detailed information and verbatim quotes were recorded by the notetakers, who later translated all notes from Myanmar language into English themselves. Unfortunately demographic information was not recorded against every direct quote, so some quotes featured in the following sections are missing information (e.g., age, ethnicity). While conducting qualitative analysis using translated data is not optimal, the Academic Partner team worked closely with the Research Associates to ensure that all interpretations and analyses accurately reflected the original information recorded in the sessions. There were some sampling and time limitations that resulted in inconsistent size and age distributions between FGDs and KIIs, due to limited availability of participants from certain demographics. For example, for the KIIs the facilitators were only able to recruit one village elder in Kayah State (and no religious leaders), only two Chin and no Maramagyi young people in Rakhine State. Muslim IDP samples were skewed towards educated youth and adults due to lack of social media experience among those with lower levels of education. Rural villages in Rakhine State were not sampled due to resource and time constraints. For subsequent studies, conducting data collection in rural villages in Rakhine State should be prioritized as the perspective and experiences of rural community members will likely be significantly different to their urban and IDP counterparts. There may have also been selection bias, in that the interest that young people who volunteered for FGDs had in participating may have reflected their above average use of and interest in social media, and thus bias responses towards those of heavy and/or more knowledgeable users. Conversely, given the negative attitudes towards social media of some adults interviewed, it was possible that adults most disparaging of social media were also those most interested in taking part in the KIIs. Another potential limitation was a perceived reluctance for some participants to openly discuss topics of ethnic or political conflict, particularly in urban locations. Finally, facilitators noted that some Muslim IDP participants had limited capacity to communicate in Myanmar language, which may have limited the level of detail given in answers to some questions. 35