Excessive and problematic patterns of digital media use by young people are frequently discussed in both media and society. Research indicates that only a minority of young people experience serious negative health consequences from digital media use (Ruckwongpatr et al., 2022). However, many young people refer to ‘problems’ in their everyday media use on a smaller scale, presenting challenges that influence their digital wellbeing: While most young people in the UK emphasize the positive effects of gaming, some sense social pressure on gaming equipment, concerns over digital nudging, the development of gaming addiction and being distracted from other activities (Children’s Commissioner, 2024). In Germany around 66% of young people spend more time on their smartphone than intended, 39% get distracted from homework due to their smartphones, and 36% encounter family conflicts about their media use (mpfs, 2024).

These challenges in young people’s everyday media practices contrast with a self-determined, emancipated media use, a crucial component of various media literacy models for participating in a mediatized society (Stix & Jolls, 2020). In the process of deep mediatization (Hepp, 2019) social construction of reality is fundamentally negotiated with and through digital media. Therefore, an increased importance of digital media permeates all aspects of life. Experiences of overload, losing control over media use and social connection can create barriers to navigating and acting within the processes of deep mediatization. Mascheroni & Siibak (2021) argue that datafication, that thrives from deep mediatization, enhances social and digital inequalities – especially among young people. Often, they have limited agency over their personal data, which results in children feeling disempowered in managing their personal data (Mascheroni & Siibak, 2021, p. 185).

Despite growing concerns, qualitative research on how young people self-reflect on challenges in their media use and the impact on their everyday lives remains limited (e.g. Cernikova et al., 2018). To address this gap, this contribution investigates how young people reflect on challenges in their media use, how these reflections relate to media-related attitudes, and how these challenges are negotiated within their central social domains.

Domoff et al. (2020) highlight the importance of studying problematic media use in childhood through an interactionist lens, focusing on relevant social spheres and longitudinal development. Parental media use is particularly significant for the development of problematic media use (Vossen et al., 2024). From a perspective on media socialization, attitudes and media practices in the family strongly influence young people’s media use (Kammerl & Kramer, 2016) and can drive inequalities in media practices and opportunities (Potzel, 2024).

The communicative figurations approach (Hepp & Hasebrink, 2018) offers a framework for examining the entanglement of media practices and social domains within the context of mediatization. While individuals act relatively autonomously, their actions are embedded in interdependencies within communicative figurations (family, peers, school, etc.). Hepp and Hasebrink (2018) describe communicative figurations as social domains that are constituted through shared communicative practices, which create meaning of the world and the figuration itself, its constellation of actors and a shared frame of relevance (Hepp & Hasebrink, 2018, p. 30).

Considering previous findings about perceptions on challenges of media use and the theoretical framework, this submitted paper raises the following questions:

• What do young people perceive as challenging or problematic in their media use?
• How do these perceptions develop over time in the context of media socialization?
• Are these perceptions negotiated in the family (or other figurations)? If they are, how are they negotiated?

A qualitative, child-centred approach enables to take young people’s own illustration of experiences with media into account (Barker & Weller, 2003). This contribution draws on data from the project "Connected Kids—Socialization in a changing media environment" (ConKids), which investigates changes in media-related socialization in the context of deep mediatization. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 27 young people and their families from northern and southern Germany across four survey waves (2018, 2019, 2022, 2023), providing longitudinal insights into changes in media practices. The interviews with the young people were supported by a laying technique, in which they sorted photographs of their own media according to their personal relevance. The participants represent two cohorts. For this contribution, the older cohort is analysed about their reflections on challenges in media use. At the first wave, these participants were 10 years old and just transitioned to secondary school. To capture the relationality of media practices, interviews with young people were complemented by interviews with usually one parent per family, providing insights into parental perspectives on their child’s and family’s media use, media education strategies, and personal media-related experiences and attitudes. The data was then analysed using qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz & Rädiker, 2023), which supports the structuring of large longitudinal datasets and facilitated the exploration of topics, attitudes and social contexts that young people reflect on in their description of problematic media use. These can be compared to statements from the parents’ perspective. Coding followed a deductive-inductive approach, combining theoretical knowledge with exploratory analysis to uncover new insights. Key codes include reflection on own media use and media literacy, media-related conflicts and attitudes. Although the focus of this research is on self-observed challenges in everyday media practices, criteria for problematic gaming and social media act as a sensitizing framework for identifying and categorizing challenging media practices. Criteria for problematic gaming and problematic social media use are discussed to be similar, however social media has to be further studied to be acknowledged as a psychological disorder: ranging from excessive time spent online, withdrawal symptoms, loss of connection and interest in social life as well as hobbies and unsuccessfully trying to regulate the online behaviour (American Psychiatric Association, 2013; Van Den Eijnden et al., 2016).

In the course of four survey waves, young people’s media repertoires expanded with new devices and applications shaping their practices. Particularly digital media became increasingly central for peer and family communication, spending free time and school-related tasks. Simultaneously their media use grew more independent from parental regulation. Preliminary findings indicate that in all 13 cases challenges in media use were reported at some point of the survey although in one case only the parent identified it. In most cases young people mentioned own problematic patterns of media use during the third or fourth survey wave, where they are between ages 13 to 15. Sometimes they commented on strategies to manage their behaviours, including seeking the support of their parents. Looking into the negotiation of these challenges in the family, most parents mentioned worries about possible problematic use of digital media of their children in survey waves before their children express similar thoughts. Further analysis may need to consider the role of the third person effect (Duck & Mullin, 1995) in the negotiation of challenges around media use in the family. Remarkably, all reflections on challenges in media use centred on excessive or addictive tendencies in the use of digital media, especially among the smartphone and social media. By deepening these initial findings, this contribution aims to advance the understanding of challenges in digital media use from young people’s perspectives in relation to their social environment. These preliminary findings underscore the importance of relational perspectives to understand challenging media use and highlight the family’s critical role in supporting the development of healthy media practices and media literacy. Furthermore, they suggest the need for public discourse to address ethical considerations in media design.

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