Antisocial Behaviour and Social Media: An Exploration of Rangatahi Motivations and Online Influences

<p dir="ltr">There is growing concern over the role of social media in rangatahi (young people’s) antisocial behaviours. Recent times have seen an increase worldwide in the number of rangatahi recording and sharing antisocial activities on social media. To date, no academic research has addressed this issue. The current study took a qualitative approach to exploring the function and influence of social media in rangatahi antisocial behaviours. Specifically, this research aimed to address the following questions: <i>1) Why do rangatahi share antisocial activities online? 2) What do rangatahi hope to achieve from sharing antisocial activities online? and 3) How does social media influence rangatahi involvement in antisocial activities?</i> Seven rangatahi from the community consented to be interviewed. Interviews were transcribed and then analysed using Braun and Clarke’s (2006) Reflexive Thematic Analysis (RTA), which allows for the identification of patterns of meaning across the dataset. Four themes were developed in relation to rangatahi perceptions of social media and their behaviours: <i>1) Goals of social media use; 2) Influence of social media; 3) Likes and going viral; and 4) Insights and awareness.</i> Findings highlighted that social media was used widely and differently across rangatahi, with antisocial activities being only one aspect of their wider social media use. Rangatahi described using social media for a range of purposes, including connecting with their peers and expressing autonomy. Rangatahi also described making active decisions around their social media use, while having various levels of insight into the nature of social media and its influence on their behaviours and beliefs. This thesis provides novel insights into the function of social media in rangatahi behaviours. It also identified a need for future research to further explore the antisocial aspects of behaviours online with wider samples of rangatahi.</p>