Belonging in a Digital Age: Teens, Tech, & Third Places - Livestream

As adolescence becomes increasingly digital, public discourse tends to focus on screen time, platform design, and online harms. Yet alongside these concerns, a parallel transformation has unfolded: the steady erosion of physical spaces meant for teens. What happens to youth social life when the outside world contracts? This talk argues that the rise of digital adolescence must be understood alongside the decline of third places - low-barrier environments beyond home and school that once supported informal peer culture and autonomy. Drawing on original statewide data from caregiver focus groups and a survey of more than 1,000 teens, we examine how young people navigate belonging amid shrinking real-world options. By reframing youth technology use as intertwined with social infrastructure, this research raises a new policy question: What would it mean to treat third places as essential civic infrastructure for youth in a digital age?

Speakers: Jennifer Heifferon, California Partners Project; Alanna Powers-O'Brien, Family Online Safety Institute

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