Control, Suspicion and Alienation: Teenagers’ Reaction to Lockdown Digital Practices
The question of teenagers’ involvement into digital environments has possibly never been more discussed than during the COVID-19 lockdown. However, it was not clear what the young people born roughly between 2000 and 2010 who are regularly labeled as “digital natives” took out of unprecedented exposure to digital technologies: did they consider it as a possibility or a challenge? How do they estimate its influence on their daily lives and future? Within a broader project “COVID Childhood” carried out at HCMD, I have analyzed over 0.5 million social media posts by Russian teenagers to understand their health-related fears, problems with online education and peer group communication.