Teen Boys and their Smartphones as Worldmaking Devices
In the Palm of their Hands
Buch in deiner Nähe kaufen
Beschreibung
This book is about how teen boys use their smartphones to create a world for themselves and their peers. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork spanning two years and following six teenage boys on and offline, the book investigates what kind of worlds these boys are making, and how. It explores the ways in which teen boys connect with other people and express themselves, how they gain agency and make shared worlds. It also asks to what extent this worldmaking is shaped by the opportunities and constraints of technology as well as by social and cultural patterns and the individual existential projects of its creators. A key finding of the book is how smartphone technology offers boys belonging to an ethnocultural or sexual minority new opportunities and agency. This book sheds much-needed light on how the smartphone impacts teenage lives and breaks new ground with its focus on boys, and by introducing the worldmaking perspective, inspired by the thinking of Hannah Arendt, to the study of digital lives.
John Magnus R. Dahl (PhD University of Bergen 2021) is Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen – Department of Communication. The research reported in this book was carried out during his postdoc at UiB’s MediaFutures: Research Centre for Responsible Media Technology and Innovation. He has shared his research in Norwegian media, on international academic conferences and in classroom settings.
This book is about how teen boys use their smartphones to create a world for themselves and their peers. Based on an ethnographic fieldwork spanning two years and following six teenage boys on and offline, the book investigates what kind of worlds these boys are making, and how. It explores the ways in which teen boys connect with other people and express themselves, how they gain agency and make shared worlds. It also asks to what extent this worldmaking is shaped by the opportunities and constraints of technology as well as by social and cultural patterns and the individual existential projects of its creators. A key finding of the book is how smartphone technology offers boys belonging to an ethnocultural or sexual minority new opportunities and agency. This book sheds much-needed light on how the smartphone impacts teenage lives and breaks new ground with its focus on boys, and by introducing the worldmaking perspective, inspired by the thinking of Hannah Arendt, to the study of digital lives.
Explores the role smartphones play in the lives of teenage boys Argues that the smartphone has made digital media indistinguishable from adolescents' identity and sociability Includes an appendix to highlight methodological developments of its combined online/offline ethnography
Autor*in
John Magnus R. Dahl
Themen in »Teen Boys and their Smartphones as Worldmaking Devices«
Teenagers smartphones personal communication internet and society masculinity
Stimmen zu »Teen Boys and their Smartphones as Worldmaking Devices«
“Dahl has written an original, moving, and carefully theorized ethnographic study of a set of Norwegian teen boys to show us how they see and forge themselves through the phone. The analysis gives the young men the credit they deserve for “worldmaking” through technology and for their fundamental decency — challenging widespread fears around teen smartphone use and the social development of boys. Dahl offers fresh perspective on technology and young men and masculinities.” (Jeffrey Lane, Associate Professor, Rutgers University, author of “The Digital Street”)
“At a time of growing public anxiety about boys’ lives online, this sensitive and rich ethnographic account of the hybrid online-offline lives of teenage boys counters some of the moral panics by offering a window into understanding their embrace of the smartphone and the ‘worldmaking’ it affords them.” (Sonia Livingstone, Digital Futures for Children centre, London School of Economics and Political Science, author of “The Class: Living and Learning in the Digital Age”)
“Amidst widespread public alarm about young people’s use of technologies and extensive debate on youthful masculinities, Dahl highlights the agency differently situated teenage boys display in their use of the phone as a device for their own worldmaking. The book’s rich ethnographic attention to these boys’ individual stories is matched by its insightful contributions to understanding. It will be essential reading for those studying or researching young people, gender and digital technologies.” (Paul Hodkinson, Professor, University of Surrey)
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