We examine how teens from an urban area in the Mid-Atlantic region of the USA regulate their use of technology. We framed our research using everyday life information seeking theory [43] and information ecologies [35]. Using a survey, audio and photo diary study, creative free response activity, and semi-structured interviews, we examine teens' perceptions of their everyday life technology use and factors that influence changes in that use, with a focus on understanding non-use, low use, and intentional self-regulation. We describe four factors impacting these practices, including local policies and access, affective factors, life stage and future goals, and relationships. We describe how shifting use practices function in the lives of these teens and discuss the importance of acknowledging teens' skills and preferences for supporting their technology use management.

In this multiple case study of two high schools in the USA, we use interview and focus group data to examine the experiences of teen-age students when they friend and interact with teachers, high school administrators, parents, and other adults on social network sites (SNS). We identify several types of teen-adult interactions on SNS, including finding information, community building, and mentoring online skills, and we connect these findings to literature on homophily and context collapse. We also report on social media norms and policies of the schools where our fieldwork was conducted. We discuss how organizational policies surrounding social media use can inhibit or reinforce the development of age-homophilous networks and thereby encourage or reduce opportunities for teen-adult interaction online. Finally, we conclude that boundary work associated with managing these complex social experiences, though awkward at times, can be an important learning experience for adults and young people alike.

The majority of American teens use social network sites (SNSs) but little is known about how they leverage their online social networks to find information. As part of a larger study on social media and information behaviors, we surveyed 158 high school students to learn about their online question asking and answering practices. We describe which teens are most likely to ask and answer questions, what they ask about, on which sites they ask questions, and how useful they perceive SNSs to be as information sources. When possible, we draw comparisons with findings in the literature about adult populations. We contextualize these findings using early insights from interviews and focus groups with 80 teens and discuss how perceptions of audience, privacy concerns, and self-presentation all play a role in teens' use of SNSs to ask and answer questions.

In this short paper, we describe the design of a new web editor for beginners called openHTML and our initial evaluation with children aged 10 and 11 in an after-school web-building workshop. Drawing on data from verbally administered surveys and participant observation, we identified three kinds of engagement with the workshop tasks: a homework orientation, an artistic orientation, and a social orientation. We describe the kinds of scaffolding that the children needed to complete their web pages, the places where they struggled, and translate these observations into implications for the design of a web editor for children.

Here we present findings of a needs validation study of 18-25 year old women and their wardrobes. Based on their feedback, we developed a prototype system that allows for borrowing and sharing of information about clothing via Facebook. The novelty of our interface lies in its combining RFID tags and social networking. In doing so we bridge the material and virtual realms and demonstrate the importance of material culture for ubiquitous computing.