Research spotlight: building inclusive social media platforms with Dr Catherine Talbot

Dr Catherine Talbot’s (Bournemouth University) research into the digital experiences of vulnerable and marginalised groups raises important questions about the presumptions we make regarding social media users—highlighting who these platforms serve and who they don’t. Her research, supported by a British Academy / Leverhulme Small Research Grant, seeks to uncover the experiences of people with dementia in using technology and explores how these platforms could be adapted for a more diverse user base.

Cyberpsychology is a fascinating term but probably one not many people are familiar with - what is cyberpsychology and what does it encompass as a field of study?

Cyberpsychology is a fascinating and rapidly developing field. As cyberpsychology researchers, we’re interested in how people are interacting with technology and how technology is affecting the human mind and behaviour. It’s inherently interdisciplinary and cuts across lots of different areas of psychology you might have already heard of.

For instance, social psychology might focus on groups online and how they interact while cognitive psychology might examine how video games impact cognitive processes like perception and attention. I often work with colleagues in human-computer interaction who design technologies, and I bring in the psychological perspective. Cyberpsychology overlaps with sociology as well, examining wider societal impacts. We focus on a wide range of technologies—social media, video games, virtual reality, and more recently, artificial intelligence.

It seems to address the human, or social, side of technology that often gets lost. Could you tell us about your academic journey to cyberpsychology - what drew you to the field?

I've always been fascinated by how technologies can be harnessed to have positive psychological outcomes because very often, what we see in media discussions around technology is that technology is terrible, it's bad, it's harming young people. But that often isn't the case, and what we need is good, robust research in this area to understand these more nuanced impacts.

My journey began during a placement year in my undergraduate psychology degree at the University of the West of England, where I was first introduced to cyberpsychology—a field I hadn't heard of before. That sparked my interest, leading me to pursue a PhD focusing on how people with dementia use social media. That was quite a new area; there weren't very many people working in that space, and there still aren't. I think there are a lot of assumptions about the abilities of people with dementia and what they can and can't do.

It sounds like the work you’re engaged in currently is building on your doctoral research. Could you tell us more about your British Academy–funded project?

In my British Academy-funded research, I wanted to go one step further because to date, I'd only focused on people with dementia who already use social media. So, what I was missing was, what are the barriers to social media usage? Why aren't people engaging with it? Are there social barriers, cognitive barriers, or barriers with the technology design itself? That's important because then it can inform future technology design and policies to make sure people are included should they wish to use social media and can benefit from it.

One aspect of my work focuses on these barriers. Another examines unpaid carers who support people with dementia in using social media - research shows carers often help with digital technologies. And in my research, we’ve found that carers help people with dementia navigate complex interfaces of social media, to stay connected to friends, family, and community groups, and maintain a sense of belonging. However, social media isn't currently designed with people with dementia or their carers in mind.

That’s true and the level of media literacy required to engage with social media is exceptionally high, even for young people. What does cyberpsychology bring to the conversation around social media or internet use among these vulnerable or marginalised groups?

I'm quite positive about technology and its potential—but I think we can sometimes forget about certain groups of people who might not always have access to the internet or digital devices, or who may not have the necessary digital literacy skills to be able to benefit.

Beyond dementia, I've done quite a lot of work with older adults as well, and also with carers of people with a wide range of conditions. What we're finding is that these groups can feel digitally excluded. That was particularly heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic when, for a lot of people, digital technologies were a lifeline. It would have been a much more difficult time without those digital technologies. But there were whole groups of people who weren't able to use those kinds of things, and for them, that time was incredibly difficult. From a cyberpsychology perspective, what we can do is engage with those groups and shed light on their experiences and needs, to identify more effective ways of supporting them.

Do you have an idea of what's required of these platforms to make them more inclusive spaces or spaces that can account for the diversity of the user base, rather than only catering to those who are already quite digitally savvy?

These platforms need to recognise that they have a diverse user base and be aware of the challenges these users face and their needs. They need to engage with them—they need to speak to those people to see what it is they can do to improve the service they're providing.

How engaged are social media platforms in these discussions?

I think it's quite hard to get your foot in the door to improve those services and to get that conversation going. But doing research such as this and getting the word out is one first step to increasing awareness and hopefully initiating that engagement.

A key theme emerging from this conversation is that engaging with communities beyond academia and engaging with the public is central to your research. Is that the case? 

Community groups are central to my research throughout the whole journey—from developing the projects and applying for funding through to thinking about impact and dissemination. Engaging with the community that you're researching can provide questions and insights that you haven't even thought about. It's also more ethical to conduct research with people and, ultimately, it ensures that it is directly relevant to the group in question.

Looking ahead, where do you want to take this research? Are there areas you haven't explored yet that you're interested in?

We now have a broad template of what educational resources that empower people with dementia and their carers to use social media could look like. The next phase would be to develop that and to test it, and again, with the theme of patient and public involvement, having the voices of people with dementia and carers firmly ingrained throughout.

What’s come through a lot in this work is an issue of online safety, online scams, and the potential targeting of people with dementia, which is going to become more of an issue as an increasing number of people with dementia become active on social media platforms. More generally, I’m noticing an absence of consideration for people outside of the younger demographic in, for instance, debates around the Online Safety Bill.

To find out more about the work the Academy is doing around society and technology, take a look at the Academy’s Digital Society policy programme, which draws upon expertise in our fellowship, funded research, and networks across research, policy, and practice to inform our understanding of ‘what makes a good digital society?’