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E-commerce in India has been experiencing remarkable growth, successfully changing the way people transact. The pandemic has accelerated the shift towards a more digital world and triggered changes in online shopping behaviours that are likely to have lasting effects. Social media has become integral to the teen market online shopping experience. Food and clothing are the primary sources of expenditure in teenagers, followed by health and personal care for girls and video games for boys. 42% of adolescent spending is directed to social uses, such as food, video games, music, movies, events and books. 38% of their expenses are related to clothing, accessories or shoes and 15% to beauty and personal care. The research was conducted to study factors that affected the teen age group in shopping online. This inquisitiveness led to the formation of a questionnaire which focuses on collecting information on the current e-commerce trends of Indian teenagers. The study was conducted online in the age group ranging between 13 years and 19 years over a period spanning two weeks. The study focuses on determining gaps in the Indian Market for teenagers in order to cater them in a better way.

The study explored how information institutions can support the resilience of parents of adolescents affected by the Russia–Ukraine war. Ukrainian parents are facing major challenges of supporting their teenagers through a difficult developmental phase while also “buffering” their war-related hardships. By supporting parents, information institutions can also support children.

Fifteen parents were interviewed about mental health challenges and resources that are helpful and/or missing from their support systems. Recordings of participant narratives were analyzed using the qualitative thematic analysis technique.

The findings indicate that both teens and parents rely on internal resilience skills, family, friends and community resources to support themselves. However, a number of additional resources could be offered by information institutions, including content for (1) teens on developing skills in communication, interpersonal relationships, problem solving and academic pursuits; (2) parents on child development and opportunities in their host countries; both groups on (3) both groups on mental health first aid and safe spaces to meet peers. The study recommendations will be of interest to information professionals working with families, especially families affected by disasters.

The study relied on a small convenience sample of participants.

Study recommendations would be of interest to information professionals who develop and provide services to families affected by natural and manmade disasters.

Study recommendations improve understanding of the (potential) role of information institutions and libraries in strengthening family and community resilience.

The study offers a rare insight into experiences of war-affect families and provides evidence-driven recommendations for information institutions to support family and community resilience.

Social media offers youth a virtual platform to build community and amplify underrepresented voices. Online spaces are often used to respond to societal issues and adopt various roles. This article aims to focus on Laura's case, spotlighting the intersection of online activism by a youth of Color, and social media literacies used to demonstrate civic engagement around contemporary social justice issues.

Through case study methods, the author examined how a youth of Color used social media to employ critical literacy practices as tools for civic engagement, advocating for social justice, and navigating the complexities of identity work in online spaces, spotlighting Laura, a self-identified Mexican and Ecuadorian Latine 18-year-old activist, to understand how social media shapes multimodal literacy practices, how youth build culture, engage in literacies and craft civic identities online.

Findings examine Laura’s social media literacies toward social justice activism, contributing to the understanding of youth activism, digital identity and civic engagement. Findings will also examine how Laura enacts online literacy practices related to her racialized identities, and how she engages in activism and civic participation related to social justice issues. These findings contribute to the understanding of youth activism, digital identity and civic engagement.

This paper focuses on Laura’s practices within the larger frame of politics, digital space and youth culture. Moreover, it also highlights the potential of youths' multifaceted social media literacies to redefine the educator's role by fostering youth identity and social justice literacies.

This study aims to explore the experiences of newly resettled refugee-background high school students participating in the Teen Response program, a community-based initiative to assist refugee-background adolescents (RBAs) in navigating educational and career opportunities in the midwestern USA.

Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined twenty-two RBAs through survey and focus groups.

The findings reveal significant growth and transformation in the students' self-efficacy and advocacy skills. This growth underscores the critical role of social support and community engagement in helping RBAs, empowering them to advocate for themselves and others in pursuing educational and career goals.

This study contributes new insights into the community-based support programs for RBAs, focusing on enhancing self-efficacy and advocacy. It offers valuable implications for developing effective support frameworks and recommends future research on these approaches.

This research paper aims to explore how secondary school-aged business owners utilise social media to engage in informal learning. The authors make use of the concept of a self-directed experiential learning cycle to empirically explore adolescents’ entrepreneurial learning processes without formal guidance or curriculum.

The study adopts a one-on-one interview approach with a critical incident technique in interviewing to examine the experiences of 10 Grade 9–11 business owners who run social media-based businesses on Instagram.

The results demonstrate that student business owners were able to capitalise on social media for venture creation and informal learning. They effectively engaged in experiential learning cycles with active help-seeking and mentorship in response to challenges in their business journey. A variety of resources within social media, their social circle and the internet were employed by students, highlighting the role the self-directed element plays in their experiential learning process.

The research urges institutions to recognise the potential of informal learning on social media and offer more support to strengthen students’ learning.

This research represents the first exploratory study on the potential of school-age teens’ self-initiated informal entrepreneurial learning while testifying the theory of the self-directed experiential learning cycle in the context of social media businesses. The study offers novel insights into the fields of students’ informal learning, entrepreneurial learning and social media learning.

Disinformation has become a latent risk for online audiences, specifically for minors who are commonly exposed to a wide variety of online content at a time they are developing cognitively and emotionally. This paper aims to offer insight on minors’ perception and the tools used by this age group to verify the content to which they are exposed while online.

Twelve focus groups were held in Spain between April and June 2021 with a total of 62 participants aged 11–17. Besides age, sex and socioeconomic group were variables taken into consideration to select the participants. A script covering the intended questions was used to structure the discussion.

Result analysis reveals that minors are excessively confident in their ability to identify false news and feel the need to share content with their online community as a means of participation in discussions or trending topics. Although WhatsApp family groups are seen as a source of misleading news, the study reveals that the family and traditional media (mainly television) act as sources of verification of fake news for minors. In general, minors opt for actions that require less initiative to contrast the content they consume on the internet.

This study produces new findings by further deepening the results of the first quantitative study on the relationship between minors and disinformation in Spain using qualitative method from conducting virtual focus groups.

By examining types of literacies taught by public libraries and the modes through which these programs were offered, this study aims to explore how public libraries might integrate data literacy training for the general public into existing library educational programs.

This study examined programs offered in 30 US public libraries during 2019 and 2020 to better understand types of literacy education announced to the public through library website listings and Facebook Events pages.

While public libraries offered educational programs in literacy areas ranging from basic reading and writing to technology, vocational skills, health literacy and more, data literacy training was not widely offered. However, this study identified many already-existing programs highly compatible for integrating with data literacy training.

This study offered new insights into both the literacies taught in public library programs as well as ways for public libraries to integrate data literacy training into existing educational programming, in order to better provide data literacy education for the general public.

Public health measures implemented early in the COVID-19 pandemic brought the idea of essential work into the public discourse, as the public reflected upon what types of work are essential for society to function, who performs that work, and how the labour of essential workers is rewarded. This chapter focusses on the rewards associated with essential work. The authors develop an intersectional lens on work that was officially deemed essential in 2020 to highlight longstanding patterns of devaluation among essential workers, including those undergirded by systemic racism in employment and labour law. The authors use quantitative data from the CPS-MORG to examine earnings differences between essential and non-essential workers and investigate whether the essential worker wage gap changed from month to month in 2020. The authors find that patterns of valuation among essential workers cannot be explained by human capital or other standard labour market characteristics. Rather, intersectional wage inequalities in 2020 reflect historical patterns that are highly durable and did not abate in the first year of the global pandemic.

This study aims to explore the use and perceptions of social media among university students before and during their transition from high school to higher education.

This exploratory, cross-sectional study uses an online survey of 312 undergraduate students at a large public research university in the USA.

Active participation was prevalent for connecting with peers, while passive use was high when learning about university-related topics. While at university, social media was most useful for finding campus events and connecting with classmates, but least effective for connecting with instructors. Most participants experienced meaningful change in their social media use from high school to university, which is often attributed to personal growth. Social media intensity correlated weakly but positively with usefulness and sense of belonging.

The study’s sample from a single university limits generalizability. While similar institutions might show comparable results, variations due to student demographics and differing institutional practices could emerge. The retrospective approach for reporting high school behaviors also poses a limitation. Future research could longitudinally follow students from university search to enrollment and attendance.

The study recommends universities adjust social media strategies by prioritizing social content, using student ambassadors and customizing feeds. Universities should support students both online and offline, recognizing diverse pathways to belonging.

This study examines the transition period by asking university students to retrospectively reflect on high school experiences and also report current experiences. It also offers insights into student perceptions of whether their social media use has changed in meaningful ways.