Flexible applications of the scroll-back method: Integrating digital traces in qualitative research across the life course.

Abstract

Digital traces—such as social media posts and app data—are increasingly used in qualitative research, both as primary data sources and as elicitation tools in interviews. One emerging approach, the scroll-back method, uses participants’ own digital traces from social media as prompts to support memory recall, stimulate reflection, and ground discussion in everyday practices. This article examines the adaptability of scroll-back across varied research contexts and developmental populations. We draw on three case studies involving adolescents, young adults, and older adults to illustrate how scroll-back was tailored to different participant groups, digital platforms, and research aims. These examples highlight how the method can be flexibly implemented, for instance through participant-led vs. researcher-led selection of content, by combining with content analysis, and by drawing on digital traces across platforms. Our reflections show that these adaptations supported rich and sometimes unexpected forms of data generation, while also surfacing important ethical and practical challenges, including issues of privacy, emotional risk, digital inclusion, and researcher–participant power dynamics. We conclude by offering a set of methodological considerations for adapting the scroll-back method in future studies. In doing so, we highlight its value not as a fixed protocol, but as a versatile methodological technique that is suited to adaptation across populations, technologies, and substantive topics.