Abstract

Digital and social-media environments have become major sites where young people encounter cultural diversity, negotiate identity, and participate in civic discourse. Yet some middle schoolers respond to perceived risks of online spaces with a form of critical digital withdrawal, intentionally avoiding common social platforms and limiting participation in networked publics. This poster presents two cross-cultural case studies of middle school students (one in a U.S. urban context and one in a Chinese urban context) who critically avoid certain digital literacy practices. Drawing on interviews with students and parents, school observations, and digital artifacts, we analyze how family mediation, school policy, platform governance norms, and youths’ developing sense of self shape dispositions toward nonparticipation in online affinity spaces. Although the national contexts differ, both cases show how concerns about safety, misinformation, and social harms can narrow youths’ opportunities for intercultural dialogue and civic engagement online. We conclude with design principles for inclusive, intercultural digital literacy pedagogy that support students in remaining critical without disengaging and cultivate classroom learning environments that promote respectful intercultural communication and democratic digital participation relevant to pluralistic European societies.

Purpose

This study examines how youths’ “critical digital withdrawal” digital literacy practices shape, and are shaped by, opportunities for intercultural contact, identity negotiation, and civic participation in digitally mediated learning environments. It aims to inform innovative intercultural teaching strategies that support students’ criticality while sustaining inclusive participation, an urgent concern in diverse classrooms and communities.

Research questions 

1. How do adolescents in two sociocultural contexts interpret the risks/values of participating in online social platforms and affinity spaces as sites of intercultural interaction?
2. What roles do family guidance, school policies, and platform governance play in shaping youths’ social media participation or withdrawal? 
3. What intercultural digital literacy teaching strategies help students remain critical while developing dispositions for democratic participation and respectful dialogue across difference?

Theoretical Framing 

• Critical digital literacy: critical evaluation of platforms, discourse, and power while recognizing that “overly critical to the point of withdrawal” can undermine the educational goal of meaningful participation (Aguilera & Pandya, 2021; Janks, 2013; Pangrazio, 2016).
• Intercultural learning in digital environments: social platforms as spaces where intercultural discourses circulate, identities are negotiated, and civic talk occurs; therefore, “withdrawal” is not only a personal media choice, but also a participation/learning issue in diverse societies (Çiftçi, 2016; Bailey & Gruber, 2020).
• Democratic digital citizenship orientation: classrooms as learning environments that support students to engage ethically, safely, and critically with difference rather than retreating into small, homogeneous networks (Choi, 2016; Manzuoli et al., 2019).

Due to the non-mainstream presence of students who demonstrated critical digital withdrawal practices, case studies will be an appropriate form for conducting the research. Student participants are recommended by their class teachers. Based on voluntary prerequisite, I held weekly tutoring sessions with the students in English Language Arts (English as a Second Language in China) once a week for over three months before proceeding with data collection for the case studies to establish familiarity and trust with them. I then coordinated with students’ parents and their schools to schedule interviews and on-site observations. The data collection period lasts for approximately three months for each case. Data sources for this project include audio recordings, transcripts, and notes taken from the interviews with students and parents, as well as field notes taken during on-site observations. In addition, pictures, files, and screenshots that students presented to demonstrate the digital literacy practices they have engaged in, those they have not engaged in, and those they have stopped engaging in are also collected as artifacts. Interview audio is transcribed verbatim and organized alongside observation notes and artifacts. All materials are stored in a secure database. Analysis follows iterative thematic analysis: (1) initial/open coding of transcripts and field notes using both participant-derived and researcher-interpretive codes, (2) focused coding with a refined codebook and analytic memos, and (3) artifact coding to triangulate claims. Themes are developed within each case and then compared using a cross-case matrix to identify shared and context-specific patterns.

Across the two cases, youths’ withdrawal from engaging in major social platforms emerged as a purposeful, critical stance rather than a simple lack of interest. Both students described external constraints (family rules and school messaging) as shaping their platform choices and felt their existing communication channels were “enough,” reducing motivation to join broader social networks. Their avoidance was reinforced by observing or anticipating online harms (e.g., conflict, misinformation, negative peer dynamics), which strengthened a protective orientation toward “staying away.” Notably, both students expressed rigid certainty in their judgments about platforms, treating their evaluations as unquestionable, which further stabilized withdrawal over time. This avoidance reduces exposure to broader peer discourses and cross-group interaction that often occur on popular platforms; students stay within “safer,” bounded communication channels (e.g., messaging-only), limiting practice with intercultural dialogue and civic discussion. This study contributes to research on innovative intercultural learning environments by identifying an under-discussed learner disposition: critical digital withdrawal, a stance where youth interpret online affinity spaces as so risky or unproductive that they disengage. For European societies characterized by linguistic and cultural diversity, this matters because democratic civic cultures depend on young people’s capacity to participate in pluralistic dialogue, evaluate information, and engage respectfully across differences, skills increasingly practiced (or not practiced) in digital spaces. Findings suggest that intercultural digital literacy education should (1) explicitly teach how platform norms and governance shape discourse, (2) scaffold students’ participation in moderated, inclusive online exchanges, (3) support students’ agency and safety without defaulting to restriction-only approaches, and (4) cultivate classroom norms for dialogue, disagreement, and civic reasoning. In short, the goal is not “more social media use,” but more equitable and educative participation, helping students remain critical while sustaining intercultural engagement and democratic dispositions.

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