Table Of ContentTeenagers and Technology
The popular media often presents a negative picture of young people and
technology. From addiction to gaming and the distractions of the Internet to the
risks of social networking, the downsides of new technology in the lives of
teenagers are often over-blown.
Teenagers and Technologypresents a balanced picture of the part played by
technology in the lives of young people. Drawing on extensive interviews
conducted over several years, this book offers a timely and non-sensational
exploration of teenagers’ experiences and opinions about the digital technologies
they use, desire and dislike.
The book covers a range of topical subjects including:
(cid:129) social networking and online engagement in the wider social world
(cid:129) building online self-identity and group membership
(cid:129) technology in the home
(cid:129) developing technology skills in support of learning
(cid:129) drawing on technological resources in the journey towards adulthood.
Grounded in what young people actually say about using new technology in
their daily lives, Teenagers and Technology explores the unique relationship
young people have with digital media, but also draws parallels to how new
technology is used throughout society. Importantly, it also discusses the so-called
‘digital divide’ whereby some teenagers have limited access to new technologies,
and the issues that this raises.
By providing a nuanced view on the topic, Teenagers and Technology
counters the extreme accounts of ‘digital youth’ and exaggerated anxieties
created by the mass media. It will be of interest to students and academics
working in the fields of adolescent and Internet studies, along with education
professionals, practitioners, teenagers and their parents.
Chris Daviesteaches and researches at the University of Oxford, Department
of Education. He directed the research project which features in this book
and currently runs the Kellogg Centre for Research on Assistive Technologies.
Rebecca Eynonis Research Fellow at the Oxford Internet Institute and Lecturer
in Education at the University of Oxford. She is Co-editor of the journal
Learning, Media and Technology and her research focuses on learning, new
technologies, youth and everyday life.
Adolescence and Society
Series Editor: John C. Coleman, OBE
Department of Education, University of Oxford
In the 20 years since it began, this series has published some of the key texts in
the field of adolescent studies. The series has covered a very wide range of
subjects, almost all of them being of central concern to students, researchers and
practitioners. A mark of its success is that a number of books have gone to second
and third editions, illustrating its popularity and reputation.
The primary aim of the series is to make accessible to the widest possible
readership important and topical evidence relating to adolescent development.
Much of this material is published in relatively inaccessible professional journals,
and the objective of the books has been to sum marise, review and place in context
current work in the field, so as to interest and engage both an undergraduate and
a professional audience.
The intention of the authors is to raise the profile of adolescent studies among
professionals and in institutions of higher education. By publishing relatively
short, readable books on topics of current interest to do with youth and society,
the series makes people more aware of the relevance of the subject of adolescence
to a wide range of social concerns.
The books do not put forward any one theoretical viewpoint. The authors
outline the most prominent theories in the field and include a balanced and critical
assessment of each of these. Whilst some of the books may have a clinical or
applied slant, the majority concentrate on normal development.
The readership rests primarily in two major areas: the undergraduate market,
particularly in the fields of psychology, sociology and education; and the
professional training market, with particular emphasis on social work, clinical
and educational psychology, counselling, youth work, nursing and teacher
training.
Also in this series:
Illegal Leisure Revisited Moving Out, Moving On
Judith Aldridge, Fiona Measham Shelley Mallett, Doreen Rosenthal,
and Lisa Williams Deb Keys and Roger Averill
The Nature of Adolescence, Adolescent Coping
4th Edition Erica Frydenberg
John C. Coleman
Social Networks in Youth and
Wired Youth Adolescence
Gustavo Mesch and Ilan Talmud John Cotterell
Growing Up With Unemployment Personality Development in
Anthony H. Winefield Adolescence
Eva Skoe and Anna von der Lippe
Sexuality in Adolescence
Susan M. Moore and Doreen A. Smoking in Adolescence
Rosenthal Barbara Lloyd and Kevin Lucas
Identity in Adolescence Young People’s Involvement in
Jane Kroger Sport
John Kremer, Shaun Ogle and
Young People’s Leisure and
Karen Trew
Lifestyles
Anthony Glendenning, Youth, AIDS and Sexually
Leo Hendry, John Love and Transmitted Diseases
Janet Shucksmith Anne Mitchell, Susan Moore
and Doreen Rosenthal
Illegal Leisure
Judith Aldridge, Fiona Measham Adolescent Health
and Howard Parker Patrick Heaven
Teenagers and Technology
Chris Davies and
Rebecca Eynon
Published 2013
by Routledge
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2013 Routledge
The right of Chris Davies and Rebecca Eynon to be identified as authors of this
work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Davies, Chris.
Teenagers and technology/Chris Davies & Rebecca Eynon.
p. cm.
1. Internet and teenagers. 2. Internet – Safety measures. I. Eynon,
Rebecca. II. Title.
HQ799.2.I5D38 2012
004.67′80835 – dc23 2012021673
ISBN: 978-0-415-68457-6 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-415-68458-3 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-07927-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon
Contents
Acknowledgements ix
1 Opening 1
2 Uses 18
3 Contexts 38
4 Identity 60
5 Learning 78
6 Outliers 101
7 Autonomy 122
Closing 135
Notes 138
Bibliography 140
Index 155
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to all those who worked on the
Learner and their Context project: Andrew Carter, Anne-Marie Chase,
Sue Cranmer, Anne Geniets, Jenny Good, John Furlong, Melissa
Highton, Isis Hjorth, Stuart Lee, Lars-Erik Malmberg, Jane Shuyska,
Dimitrina Spencer; all those at Becta who helped to guide the project,
especially Adrian Higginbotham; and most of all, the young people who
talked to us about their lives and who, along with their parents and
teachers, so generously enabled our work.
