YOUTH CULTURE IN A DIGITAL WORLD
LECTURE 1 – INTRODUCTION
Culture: “A group’s distinctive way of life, including its beliefs and values, its customs, and
its art and technologies”
Geographical (Dutch culture)
Social (fit girl)
Temporal (boomers)
Youth culture
- Shared beliefs, behavior, practices, and values of young people within society or
subculture
- The ways in which young individuals express themselves, interact with one another,
and distinguish themselves from older generations
- Youth culture is dynamic and can vary significantly across time and place, reflecting
the cultural, social, and historical context in which it emerges
o Fashion and style
o Music
o Language
o Social activities
o Values and ideals
o Media and technology
- Social media: web-based applications, that allows people to share,
follow, and collaborate
- Digital media alles dat niet face to face is en informatie verspreid
“Digital media had disrupted/enriching traditional culture”
- Social presence theory: ‘sense of being together’ lower in digital media. (disrupted)
- Social information processing theory: communicators’ interpersonal needs promps
them to try their best. you need special skills to interpret things on social media
(enriched)
- Channel expansion theory: users with experience will strive to develop necessity
skills.
SIP: social media is not just disrupted or enriched our lives; it is about how someone
interpretate it.
“How is social media used”
- Replacement (hoeft niet meer naar buiten want sociale media vervangt) of addition
(het is een toevoeging)
- Passively (IG scroller) or actively (picture posting)
“Why use social media”
- Uses & gratification theory: What purpose or function does social media offer for
active receivers?
Traditional media: (Lasswell ,1948)
- Surveillance of environment
- Affective need
- Transmission of social heritage
- Escapism
,New media (Sheldon et al., 2017)
- Self-promotion
- Maintain existing relationships
- Need for creativity
- Escapism
- Expressing opinions
Youth development: 2 approaches
1. Developmental task approach: developmental tasks/challenges need to be fulfilled
Basic idea: hierarchic list of tasks, met through biological or social development ->
cumulative.
Applications: E.g., Erikson’s developmental theory, Havighurst developmental theory
-> You can’t skip a stage; you go through them al
Media effect example: Effects depend on the age of the child ->
Perceptual stage (2-7): looking scary
Conceptual stage (7+): being real
Parents are examples (<12)
Influencers are examples (12+)
2. Risk of resilience approach: differential life experiences among children
Basic idea: risk and protectives factors explain differences between children ->
cumulative risk model
Applications: snowball effect, turn around models
Why is one of two friends becoming violent by playing video games and the other
one isn’t? -> certain factors like social media welfare and background story influence
them.
2
, Ecological model:
- Micro: how do parents monitor and regulate their children’s media use (tracking
screentime, keeping media outside the bedroom)?
- Exo: is school offering classes on online safety and social media policies a such
banning the smartphone from the classroom
- Macro: what do we believe and value regarding social media, is it entertainment, or
dangerous?
Interconnected, but not identical
Interconnected, but not identical
- Anonymity: different, more extreme forms of behavior e.g., cyberbullying
- Creativity: playing around, discovering who you are
- Asynchrony: communication at hour convenience, breaking time, and space
constraints
- Controllability: to ability to dedicate what information to share or omit.
Example identity development: personal, social, gender, ethnic -> “an identity is, at least in
part, an explicit theory of oneself as a person”
Key components
- Self-image: how young people perceive themselves
- Self-esteem: the ability to appreciate this self-image
All types of development are influencing media effects, you can’t say “what is the effect of
social media on media health”, we need to know why, how and who is using social media.
It’s a way to become critical on how to study these effects, what to consider. It’s less about
answered and more about questions.
3