“The world has changed...’—Unlocking Teen Perspectives on Technological Futures through Design Fiction Workshops”. Gak, L., Li, I., Rosner, D., Salehi, N. ACM Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) Extended Abstracts 2025.

Eliciting youth perspectives on technology presents unique challenges, as traditional research methods often feel formal, abstract, or disconnected from teens’ lived experiences. Building on HCI research engaged with present-day sociotechnical experiences, our work examines teens’ impressions of their technological futures through design fiction. In this study, we conducted design fiction workshops with 17 high school students, resulting in 12 stories exploring potential technological futures. We identified three major themes via thematic analysis: the exacerbation of social inequities, perceptions of technology-intertwined adulthood, and the normalized omnipresence of technology. Through our playful approach to design fiction, our study enabled participants to creatively explore sociotechnical topics that might be difficult to discuss. This work highlights design fiction as an insightful method for understanding youth’s nuanced views on technology.