Mapping the Terrain: How Youth Use Digital Media

• In Event: Digital Equity: Micro- and Macro-Level Perspectives

Abstract

Young people today make sense of their world in ways different from their counterparts of only a generation ago. The manner in which youth interact with one another, their families, their teachers, and strangers, and how they experience their neighborhoods, schools, and youth-based organizations are inevitably framed by technologies that were just nascent at the turn of the century. A challenge, of course, is that youth experience their social worlds in ways that are circumscribed by larger social and economic forces that privilege some and marginalize others.  The “digital divide” or “participation divide” creates an additional layer of challenge to students already facing inadequate services in their schools and communities. Consensus exists among academics and practitioners that this challenge is not only about access to computers and Broadband, but also about learning opportunities related to digital literacies in formal and informal contexts (Attewell & Winston, 2003; Becker, 2000; DiMaggio & Hargittai, 2001; Helsper & Eynon, 2009; Lu & Straubhaar, 2014; Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010). We know that the social contexts of learning matter, but we know relatively little about the context of online use and video game play for low income children and children of color. This paper provides a framework for understanding digital inequities grounded in the theories of social and cultural capital and applies the framework to recent changes in technology and the sorts of inequities that exist between low income and middle/upper income youth. In doing so, the authors challenge scholars to think about technological capacities in a way that moves conversations of the digital divide away from simplistic analyses of the lack of goods and services and towards investigations that highlight the sociocultural realities of students from marginalized backgrounds.

Authors

• William G. Tierney, University of Southern California

• Suneal Kolluri, University of Southern California