1. Adolescence, schooling &
identity: New & old contexts
 Old (back to 1950 & 1980)
 Local area only (incl family, community,
school for some in 1950 for most 1980)
 New (2010+)
 Local area (as above)
 BUT
 Glocalisation via media (e.g. TV, new social media)
 Growth of:
 Music
 Sport (for both male & female)
 Technology (when innovations become appliances)
 Homes, bedrooms as multi-media hubs & multi-
tasking
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3. Statistics on family (CSO,
2008
 Family size children in 1981-2006:
 1 or 2 child families increase: 77% (1)
& 31% (2)
 4, 5 or 6 child families decrease: 59%,
79% & 89%
 Family configuration: Single/dual
parent
 17.6% in single parent families
(187,000 or 1 of 6 in 2006), 86%
headed by women
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4. Changing adolescents in a
changing family systems
 More diverse family structures in Ireland
(& other Western countries, Coleman,
2010) now than in past
 Parental work patterns (changing - boom to
bust), blended families, smaller, more single
parent households, separation & divorce
 Issues:
 Earlier “bio-psycho-social” maturity among
adolescents,
 e.g. pressure to be more independent earlier
(Feldman, 2008)
 Family boundaries & roles more changing
blurred,e.g. adolescents as workers, online
lives, access to money
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7. Wired youth: social world of
adolescents in information age
 "It's the cool thing to do. It's amazing how
quickly it has taken off - a few months
ago, no one had heard of it but now, it's a
bit weird if you haven't got a page on
Bebo." (Dublin teenager, 2006)
 In 2006, Ireland had highest uptake of
Bebo globally among adolescents
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9. Digital life & families
 More than one thing at a time
 Multi-tasking
 Knowers - digital natives
 status of computer & knowledge about digital
tools & family hierarchy
 “When I took office, only high energy physicists
had ever heard of the WWW…Now even my cat
has its own page” (Bill Clinton, 1996)
 Family boundaries
 Home as ‘safe’, ‘danger’ on the street?
 Expectation gaps
 Using for HW or….??
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11. Growing up digital I
 “Children are the epicentre of the
information revolution, ground zero of the
digital world” (Katz, 1997)
 Issues
 Self, other & identity: Who?
 Identity-work: ‘birds of a feather’
 Face-to-face & virtual lives e.g. second self, Turkle,
1994
 Digital natives & immigrants (Tapscott, 1998)
 Time: How long?
 Technology 20+ hrs/p/wk + multi-tasking
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12. Growing up Digital II
 Issues
 Place & Space: Where?
 In homes (3 modes): ‘children’s machine’,
‘interloper’ & ‘heart of the family’
 On-line/off-line links, e.g. “facebook effect”
 What?
 “New patterns of communication, expression &
motivation” (Mesch & Talmud, 2010)
 “The internet is becoming the town square
for the global village of tomorrow” (Bill
Gates)
 Web 2.0 from consumers to producers, e.g use
of YouTube, new social media
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