Barns möten med interaktiva medier

• Main Authors: Johansson, Mikael, Ahlqvist, Peter
• Format: Others
• Language: Swedish
• Published: Malmö högskola, Lärarutbildningen (LUT) 2010
• Subjects: Identity; Interactionism; Media; Relations; Social Sciences; Samhällsvetenskap
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-29887

This essay deals with children’s and adolescents’ use of interactive media as a tool for doing relations with each other. The purpose is to increase the understanding of the impact interactive media has on pupils’ relations and identity development both in school and on their spare time. The school system’s mission is not only to teach formal knowledge and facts but also to train children’s social skills and abilities. Despite the fact that interactive media has become a significant part of society, research tell that the school system often try to hinder the use of new technology. Through interviews with seven pupils in sixth grade and their teacher, this essay shows how interactive media impact the lives of these children. The result is analyzed from an interactionistic perspective to show how the children are doing relations and how it affects their identity development. The result shows that the children are frequent users of interactive media and they use them to communicate with foremost class mates but also peers in other locations which form a vast network of friends. A disparity can be seen between how the boys and girls use interactive media where the girls tend to use them in a higher extent for communicating with friends for the sake of communication while the boys on the other hand often use them for practical reasons such as searching information or playing games. It is emerged that interactive media is a common source for conflict which follows the children to school. The children’s relations to their peers through interactive media are connected to the development of their identity and their socialization.