Growing Up in a Digital World

Abstract

The present study intends to explore how seven young children (1 1/2–3 1/2 years) living in middle-class families acquire access to and demonstrate a wide range of skills with digital technologies at home. The study is based on the parents’ accounts of their observations, and reflections upon their toddler’s engagement with digital technologies. A short questionnaire, informal talks and visits together with interviews, are used in order to illustrate how, when, and where the toddlers access and use digital technologies. The focus is on the actual accomplishment and display of digital technologies at home and the findings highlight the content, goal and dynamic of young children’s interaction with these technologies. It is argued that toddlers’ experiences of digital technologies are mostly fitted into the families’ daily practices and do not displace other social and cultural activities. The parents draw on in-sights into the disadvantages with an excessive and early interaction with digital technologies while admitting that they give in to the actual and practical benefits of them.