‘I can be the teacher for once’: adolescent agency, digital-cultural brokerage and the co-construction of a new family contract on tiktok

This in-depth interview study explores how Arab-Palestinian adolescents in Israel utilize TikTok to navigate power and identity within their families. Situated within their context as a marginalized minority facing generational tensions and stereotypical media representation, the study theorizes the adolescent role as a ‘digital-cultural broker’ mediating between conflicting social worlds. Based on in-depth interviews with 20 adolescents (aged 14-17) and their parents, the analysis reveals four key domains of agency: wielding digital expertise as relational power; navigating family honour through ‘digital code-switching’ and audience segmentation; initiating communication as a form of emotional labour; and co-constructing authority through constant negotiation. The study concludes that TikTok is a critical site where youth perform agency, acting as a catalyst on pre-existing family dynamics. Social media facilitates the forging of a new parent–adolescent ‘relational contract’ defined by fluidity, negotiation and a youth-managed ‘conditional transparency’. In this dynamic, teens act as essential digital-cultural brokers, co-creating a family structure adapted to their hybrid reality and moving beyond a legacy of passive media consumption. This highlights the sophisticated social work young people perform online to manage their complex lives.