Cultural And Digital Media

As part of my Children’s Cultural Worlds assessment, I was asked to discuss the digital media and technologies that exist in contemporary children’s lives from a sociological perspective. Throughout this essay I will discuss a number of different areas in which digital technology and media is evident. These are childhood, society, friendships, gender, consumption, play, creativity, participatory cultures, convergence and interpretive reproduction.

Digital media is defined where as digital technology is defined as There is no doubt that recent media technologies have become a major part in many children’s lives over the past number of years. The introduction of Mobile Phones, The Internet, I Pods, I Pads, Play stations, X Box and various Social

Children tend to form same sex groups of friends such as girls play with girls and boys play with boys. Girls tend to concentrate on social networking sites via their smart phones, I Pods or laptops whereas boys are liable to interact through their X Box, Play station or I Phones. Children generally tend to develop their gender identities mainly in and through interactions with their

It would appear that children as young as 3 to 4 years old are being introduced to modern technology such as TV, DVD’s, Video and computers. Therefore more imaginative and creative play from the past, which involves the whole body, have been somewhat left behind. More children should be encouraged to become involved in Arts and Crafts and building play where they can express themselves and this will improve their concentration and eye-hand coordination. It will also give them a sense of pride and achievement that they have managed to create something by themselves.

It has been noted that children and young people tend to develop their own voices and identities through the media which they create and interact with throughout their lives. Participatory culture is supported and enabled by a wide range of associated technologies and services that have been offered to children and young people. It has also been noted how easy it is for children to access digital media production tools such as video editing on their computers. This allows them to create their own videos and upload them onto internet sites such as Face book or twitter (Bragg, S. and Kehily, M.J