Contents
Goals
To explore how digital platforms influence visibility and identity expression through explicit rules, algorithms, and cultural norms.
Steps
1. Present fictional personas
Prepare 4 (or more) fictional online profiles, such as the following.
- Template: Profiles
Lina (17 years old) – Climate Activist on TikTok
Lina uses TikTok to post short videos about environmental topics — from recycling tips to sustainable fashion and climate awareness. She enjoys using music, trends, and challenges to make her content engaging and easy to share. Sometimes she collaborates with friends from school to create videos about local projects or community clean-ups. She’s trying to grow her audience and figure out which kind of videos get more attention.
Mark (15 years old) – Gamer on Twitch
Marco spends much of his free time playing and streaming games on Twitch. He shares short clips and memes from his matches and interacts with other players in chat. He likes talking about gaming strategies and new releases, and sometimes joins online tournaments or streams with classmates. Marco is learning how to make his streams more engaging and wonders what kind of content attracts more followers.
Sarah (19 years old) – Beauty and Fashion YouTuber
Sara runs a small YouTube channel where she uploads videos about makeup routines, clothing styles, and everyday inspiration. She likes planning and editing her videos, choosing music, and interacting with her subscribers in the comments. Sara follows a few well-known influencers for ideas and tries to keep her content fresh and creative. She’s curious to understand what helps some creators reach a wider audience.
Omar (18 years old) – Promoting a Family Business on Facebook
Omar helps his parents manage the social media page for their family restaurant. He posts pictures of dishes, short videos of meal preparation, and announcements about special offers. Sometimes he adds personal stories about the restaurant’s history or the people working there. He enjoys the idea of sharing his culture and food with others online, and he’s interested in how to make his posts reach more people.
2. Small-group analysis: Exploring what they show (and what not)
Each group receives the 4 (or more) profiles and discuss the following:
- What aspects of this person’s identity can you see from their posts or content?
- What values, interests, or emotions do they seem to express?
- What kind of image of themselves are they building online?
- Is there anything that feels missing — aspects of their life or identity that remain unseen or hidden?
- How much of what they show seems authentic, and how much might be shaped by social expectations or trends?
- How might their online presence differ from who they are offline?
After the group analysis of each persona, ask participants to imagine how the platform “treats” that profile in terms of visibility and engagement.
3. How Much Attention Do They Get?
Each group discusses and decides, based on the platform’s typical behaviour:
- How many likes would this person get on average per post?
- How many shares or saves might their content receive?
- How often would their posts be commented on or recommended?
- How likely is their content to be reported or ignored?
You can visualise this on a large chart or digital board:
|
Persona |
Likes ❤️ # |
Shares 🔁 |
Saves 📥 |
Reports 🚫 |
Comments..... |
|
Lina | |||||
|
Marco | |||||
|
Sara | |||||
|
Omar |
Each group fills in the chart using numbers from 1 to 5 (or symbolic stickers, dots, etc.).
4. Voting mechanism – Who gets seen the most?
After the group discussions, draw a large table or chart with all.
Each participant votes from 1 to 5 to indicate how visible or promoted they think each persona would be on that platform:
1 = rarely visible
5 = highly visible/promoted by the platform
Participants place their votes with sticky notes or markers.
Reflection
Looking at the results and discuss:
- Which personas got the most “attention” from the platform?
- Whose content “fits” better with platform culture? Who is less visible, and why?
- What types of content or identities are rewarded?
- What happens to content that doesn’t fit the mainstream style or message?
- What does this tell us about the values promoted by each platform?
Relevant knowledge for facilitators
Digital platforms — like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, or X (Twitter) — are not neutral spaces. They are built on systems called algorithms, which decide what content people see first. These algorithms are based on engagement — meaning the more people like, comment, share, or watch something, the more visible it becomes.
- Content that attracts strong reactions (likes, excitement, anger, curiosity) is shown to more people.
- Posts that are visually appealing, short, emotional, or easy to understand usually get higher visibility.
- Topics inline the values, trends, or commercial goals of the platform are promoted more often (for example, beauty, entertainment, lifestyle, or “positive” messages).
- Content that is complex, critical, controversial, or goes against the platform’s culture may get less visibility or even be hidden by moderation tools — sometimes automatically.
- The systems tend to reward popularity, not diversity — so people who already have many followers or use popular hashtags are seen more often.
In short: platforms give visibility to what keeps users online and interacting, because that generates data and advertising revenue. As a result, digital spaces can shape not only what we see, but also how we express ourselves.
- More: Platformisation
Handbook: More than Go with the Flow
- A handbook on Digital Citizenship Education, created in the frame of the project DIYW-ROAD/Competendo. Digital Youth Work - rights-sensitive, open, accessible, democratic.
- Unless otherwise stated, authors and editors of the methods published in the project are Elisa Rapetti, Markus José Plasencia Kanzler, and Nils-Eyk Zimmermann
