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Growing up Online

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Cyberpsychology as Everyday Digital Experience across the Lifespan

Abstract

In the developed world, it is now common for children to experience a digitally immersed childhood. This chapter explores the implications of this for their psychosocial development and their experience of growing up. The benefits and risks involved in early encounters are considered in relation to video games, the internet and social media. Children’s own adaptations to this digital immersion are also considered in terms of their concerns over digital content and the ways that they manage their digital presence in order to stay popular while also avoiding unwanted attention. Finally, children’s experiences are placed within their sociocultural context, which shows how changes in parenting practices and the influence of consumer society encourage children’s digital immersion.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Although usually owned by their parents.

  2. 2.

    This figure includes instant messages sent through apps like WhatsApp and Snapchat .

  3. 3.

    Born since 1980.

  4. 4.

    YouTube is popular among all children and for those over 8 is more important than broadcast TV (OfCom 2016).

  5. 5.

    34% of 12–15-year-olds find it easier to be themselves online than when they are with people face to face (OfCom 2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, Brighton, UK

    Dave Harley, Julie Morgan & Hannah Frith

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Harley, D., Morgan, J., Frith, H. (2018). Growing up Online. In: Cyberpsychology as Everyday Digital Experience across the Lifespan. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59200-2_2

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