Young people's identities in digital worlds

What is it about?

This conceptual paper takes identity, digital technology, young people and education as a combined starting point and suggests how to research young people’s identity practices in – and out school. Today’s young people form their identities in a world that is increasingly imbued by digital technologies. What is evident too is that these technologies, and the use of them, are not restricted to one single context. Rather, digital technologies mediate multiple contexts simultaneously – to an extent where they collapse. This means that school and leisure time, public and private, digital and analog, virtual and material, time and place, social contexts and audiences, through digital technology, merge in various ways in young people’s identity practices and everyday life. But, so far, little is known about what this mean to young people in their lives and how educators and others can support them. Most studies to date investigate digital technology use as a discrete phenomenon and few studies concern young people’s identity practices in contexts, as they occur. In an increasingly digital world, where dependency on digital technologies continues this forms an urgent knowledge gap to bridge. In particular to guide educators, and others, who support young people as they live and learn through interconnected spaces in and out of school. This conceptual paper is of importance to better understand how to bridge this gap. It addresses identity, digital technology, young people and education as a combined starting point to outline research questions. The Guided Tour Technique and Social Media Research is suggested as possible methodologies for both ontologically and ethically sensitive, empirical research. The paper ends with concluding remarks on the relevance and significance of the proposed research approach.

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