Growing up on social media Indian adolescents experiences perceptions and practices

Abstract

Young people live in a digitally connected world. Their everyday practices and realities newlineare mediated as they scroll through, make meanings, present and curate their identities, newlineshare and make content, and interact with others online. Indian children and adolescents newlineare growing up on social media. They access and use apps and platforms to experience newlinesocialisation, learn to manage impressions as well as risks and opportunities, develop newlineskills and practices to foster connections, and creatively express themselves. newlineIn this doctoral thesis, I acknowledged the importance of foregrounding young people s newlinevoices regarding their social media lives to understand and qualitatively unpack their newlinepractices online. Technopanics in Indian media discourse add to adult anxieties regarding newlinechildren s social media lives which can translate to restrictive parenting even as we newlineshould be protecting young people s digital rights and offering them a safe digital newlineenvironment. By considering young people s testimonies, we can begin to recognise their newlineneed and ability for agentic, innovative negotiations and skills for social media access and newlineuse. Meaningful dialogue between young people and their adults offers a safe space and newlineopportunity to maximise benefits and minimise risks in a social media world. newlineConversations about their online lives should begin early into their foray on social media newlineto aid critical digital and social media literacy efforts. newlineIt is also important to note the role and responsibility of other stakeholders in the bid to newlinecentre children s digital rights. Most technology used by young people in India is not newlinebuilt for them. With increasing complexities of datafication, dataveillance, digital creative newlinelabour, and commodification, it is important to bring everyone to the table so that we can newlinebegin to have broader conversations about children s digital rights to a safe online newlineenvironment in an increasingly connected and complicated world. newline