Addressing youths’ digital agency with internet technologies

Discourses and practices that produce inequalities

Bibliographic Data

ID12600601
AuthorsMarta Choroszewicz (0000-0001-7564-6437, University of Eastern Finland, corresponding author)
Year2024
Volume28
Issue7
Pages1071-1088
Publication date2024-04-22
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Youth Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1367-6261 • E-ISSN: 1469-9680
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13676261.2024.2343698
OpenAlexW4395008771
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited24

This study approached the issue of youths' digital agency by analyzing the ways in which youths talk about their use of Internet technologies for recreational purposes outside of school. Using interview data from young people (n = 28) born in 2005 and 2006, this paper approaches youths' speech as culturally embedded discourses that express their strategies for making their digital practices understandable and acceptable to adults. By doing so, the paper addresses the need for ongoing research that explores youths' digital engagement with Internet technologies within a wider social context that positions them as 'digital natives'. The study results were organized into 11 discourses under four themes: benefits, harms and risks, person-based networking, and Internet skills. The identified discourses reflect the ways in which young people articulate and negotiate their digital agency with social norms, assumptions and expectations of them as tech-savvy youths. By focusing on youths' speech and discourses, this study advances current research on digital inequalities among young people. It also highlights the need for young people to be supported and empowered in developing skills that enable critical and safe engagements with Internet technologies

Agency (philosophy · Digital divide · Inequality · Political science · Public relations · Social science · Sociology · The Internet · World Wide Web · Child Development and Digital Technology · Computer Science · Impact of Technology on Adolescents · Mathematics · Social Media and Politics

Tools

Open DOIOpen Access