Consuming Technology

Abstract

Pre-teen girls desire to shop is central to the success of the consumer-media tween culture but the products and messages of tween have been the subject of widespread debate and inquiries. Inappropriate clothing and accessories have driven much of the debate around the pernicious nature of tween culture. Yet the girls’ consumption desires extend beyond clothing and accessories. The greatest desire for these pre-teens was technology, and lots of it. While much has been written about the negative effects of technology use for children these pre-teens’ share stories of technology driven family leisure activities. The girls’ stories reveal valuable insights into the role technology can play in creating new family leisure activities. While the girls embraced all technology their greatest desire was to own a mobile phone. Yet many of the girls’ parents were reluctant to purchase this expensive item while they were still in primary school. In this chapter I consider how emerging cultural norms around mobile phone ownership created tension between the girls’ desire to use this technology to explore freedom and independence outside their familial relationships and their parents’ response of ‘not yet’ or ‘next year’.