Concerned About Scrolling, But Inspired to Create: What Media Go-Alongs Can Tell Us About Adolescents' Digital Literacies and Why We Should Listen

• In Event: Youth Learning in Action: Moves Toward Civic, Digital, and Media Literacy

Abstract

Common digital literacy frames and guidance frequently take a deficit approach to adolescents’ digital literacies and in doing so assume that youth have little to offer in relation to understanding digital ecologies. Through the use of media go-alongs this project investigates the digital literacies that adolescents themselves identify as being most salient to their lives and explores how digital competencies and capacities are being shaped or expanded through their use of social media. Drawing on a critical youth studies theoretical framework this study reveals that while youth are wary about social media algorithms and the constant draw of scrolling, they are also platform superusers who are frequently artistically and creativity inspired by the social media ecologies they inhabit.

Author

• Layla Coleman, University of Wisconsin - Madison