“Designing with Youth, Not for Them: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Tech”
Talk
Too often, tech products aimed at young people are designed for them, not with them, reinforcing narrow assumptions about what young people want, need, and can contribute. As a result, digital spaces frequently work against, rather than for, young people’s wellbeing. But not all young people are struggling with tech. Many are finding ways to connect, create, and express themselves, often in spite of default design choices that fail to reflect their realities.
This matters now more than ever. Gen Z and Gen Alpha make up one of the largest and most powerful blocks of tech users globally. They are not only shaping online culture, they are influencing the evolution of the platforms themselves. And with the rapid rise of AI, we face a critical window to shape how this transformative technology impacts a rising generation. Young people must be supported to navigate both the opportunities and risks of AI, and to develop the agency, fluency, and voice to help shape its future.
This session will explore how default design practices continue to marginalize youth perspectives, and why centering diverse youth voices is essential to building more inclusive, empowering tech. It’s more than just about gaining the technical skills to build new tech, it’s also about developing a critical fluency of how tech intersects into a teen’s life. Our goal is not only to manage and minimize risks, but also to lean into the positives: supporting young people in shaping digital spaces, and AI tools, that foster meaningful connection, creativity, and agency, and helping them find their way in a tech future they help design.
We’ll share insights from Young Futures’ Youth Listening Tour and from youth-led and youth-informed nonprofits that are charting new paths for healthier, more empowering digital experiences. We’ll also explore what it takes to move from tokenistic “youth input” to true youth co-creation, and how funding and scaling youth-developed solutions can shift the broader ecosystem.
“Designing with Youth, Not for Them: Moving Beyond One-Size-Fits-All Tech”
Katya Hancock;
Talk
Too often, tech products aimed at young people are designed for them, not with them, reinforcing narrow assumptions about what young people want, need, and can contribute. As a result, digital spaces frequently work against, rather than for, young people’s wellbeing. But not all young people are struggling with tech. Many are finding ways to connect, create, and express themselves, often in spite of default design choices that fail to reflect their realities.
This matters now more than ever. Gen Z and Gen Alpha make up one of the largest and most powerful blocks of tech users globally. They are not only shaping online culture, they are influencing the evolution of the platforms themselves. And with the rapid rise of AI, we face a critical window to shape how this transformative technology impacts a rising generation. Young people must be supported to navigate both the opportunities and risks of AI, and to develop the agency, fluency, and voice to help shape its future.
This session will explore how default design practices continue to marginalize youth perspectives, and why centering diverse youth voices is essential to building more inclusive, empowering tech. It’s more than just about gaining the technical skills to build new tech, it’s also about developing a critical fluency of how tech intersects into a teen’s life. Our goal is not only to manage and minimize risks, but also to lean into the positives: supporting young people in shaping digital spaces, and AI tools, that foster meaningful connection, creativity, and agency, and helping them find their way in a tech future they help design.
We’ll share insights from Young Futures’ Youth Listening Tour and from youth-led and youth-informed nonprofits that are charting new paths for healthier, more empowering digital experiences. We’ll also explore what it takes to move from tokenistic “youth input” to true youth co-creation, and how funding and scaling youth-developed solutions can shift the broader ecosystem.
“How Community Stewards Are Reviving Local Trust Online”
Trei Brundrett;
Forum
How local communities share information and build trust is essential to pluralism, democracy, and economic mobility. And while we see important mediums like newspapers and libraries dying, online forums like Facebook Groups and Nextdoor have stepped in to fill the void. In fact, half of US adults say they get their local news from these sources, even more than newspapers. Unfortunately, many of these groups are toxic, negative, and hard to navigate.
Here at New_ Public, we have done a lot of research in the last year about what it requires to support healthy digital spaces for local communities; and it turns out that thoughtful, skilled, and appreciated “community stewards” are a key component. These stewards are often unsung heroes in their communities. They’re volunteers managing online neighborhood groups, newsletters, and boards. And we’ve has developed a number of insights about what it requires to care for these stewards and their online communities to fuel connections and social trust on- and offline.
A lot of our work now is scaling what they’ve learned to other communities through a platform that can serve as a new vital American institution; a transformative space for local conversation and community that invests in people, practices, and platforms — not just tech.
As a part of our presentation, we would spend the time speaking to this research and our insights, along with ways that we can make the internet local again; bringing people's attention to the places we are, inspiring a deeper sense of belonging, and ultimately creating healthy spaces online that help people thrive.