Transformative power of city play: social media and place in a post-affordance world

ABSTRACT

U.S. cities annually spend over $6 billion in building and maintaining public parks that afford places for social and physical activity. However, adolescent tendencies toward physical inactivity and sedentary behavior continue to increase and may be due to social and physical barriers that limit affordances to public space. The trend suggests that urban researchers should revisit adolescent place needs. Building upon the urban socio-ecological model, I suggest that social media is a social ecosystem service in adolescent placemaking. As part of the socioecology of youth, social media – especially video in Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, and Instagram creates opportunities for feedback and behavioral loops that inform young people of new affordances. The urban socioecological model identifies social media as an ecological post-affordance–experience and peer support not immediately afforded by the visible, physical environment. The phenomenological study builds upon 6,686 downloaded, indexed, and coded scenes from 998 videos to identify three salient place-based categories of adolescent play behavior in five U.S. cities. The place-categories are then interpreted for urban design theory using three influential urban theorists, Bachelard, de Certeau, and Benjamin. Findings suggest that social media makes the real ‘real’ and provides a key mechanism to enhance adolescent affordances in public space.

KEYWORDS:

• Public health
• urban design
• urban ecology
• socioecology
• phenomenology
• adolescents

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City Know-How

Acknowledgments

Funding for this study was provided by Iowa State University Center for Excellence in Arts and Humanities & Fieldstead and Co. Endowment for Community Enhancement Fund.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Benjamin Shirtcliff

Dr Benjamin Shirtcliff is a scholar on urban ecological theory, built environments, and adolescent play, my work addresses inequalities between adolescents and health outcomes related to design, policies, and practices. I contend that opportunities to engage adolescents in public space will have long-term societal benefits. I have been actively researching, designing, and engaging adolescent built environments for two decades. My award-winning design and research addresses opportunities for cities to support play in response to rising obesity rates, isolation, and condemning perceptions of risk.