Is there a digital hood? Disadvantaged youth can't get away from negative interactions, whether on the street or online

The team conducted semi-structured interviews with thirty females and thirty males, ranging in age from 18-24 years old, about their social worlds and neighborhoods, both online and offline. The study took place in a predominately African American and Hispanic neighborhoods. Forty-three percent of the participants were African American; 43 percent were Latino; and 13 percent were African American and Latino mixed ethnicity. All of the interviewees were either in high school or community college at the time.

"It is estimated that more than 75 percent of youth across the country are on some sort of social media," said Stevens. "Teens and young adults who are at the margins of society may have experiences in dealing with social media that others don't. Unfortunately, what we found was that not only do they have to deal with negative social interactions in their neighborhoods, those interactions also seep into their online lives, sometimes in a larger, more problematic, way." The study's findings reveal a dynamic and somewhat concerning interplay between a physical neighborhood and a digital neighborhood, where negative interactions are reproduced and amplified online.

The participants told interviewers of the drama that takes place on social media, which is a byproduct of living in a disadvantaged neighborhood. Researchers not only discovered that the physical negativity that these young people experience in their neighborhoods spills over to their lives on social media, but that the opposite is also true. "Participants told us that drama that starts out on social media can also manifest itself in serious, physical altercations on the streets," added Stevens. "Social media is an amplified reflection of the real and digital neighborhoods in which they live."

A unique advantage of social media is that it can be used to bring people together and allow users to experience things they may not get a chance to. Adversely, the study found that social media can make tensions between people even worse, or at least seem even worse. To reduce their exposure to some of these negative experiences, a number of the participants elected to limit their social media activity. But by cutting oneself off of social media completely, you negate any of the potential positive opportunities social media may allow for.