Discourses and Gender Divides in Children’s Digital Everyday Lives

Abstract

AbstractIn this qualitative study, we seek to contribute knowledge about how children talk about their digital everyday lives in peer groups and how boys and girls talk about it differently. The empirical material consists of transcripts taken from five focus group interviews with Norwegian children aged eight to ten. We use a Foucauldian-inspired discursive approach by analyzing how the participants position children, including themselves (with their spoken words), as subjects toward (spoken) objects connected to digital technology, and we identify eight different approaches when the participants talk about themselves (and other children) as subjects in relation to digital technology. Six of the ways the participants talk about children are gendered and the main difference we find is that the girls present themselves as more connected to their parents and present themselves as aware of negative content online, while the boys are either very cheeky or present themselves as sensible and social in their online activities. In the discussion we examine the findings as part of dominating discourses. We discuss if different expectations according to gender can be linked to girls not exploiting the learning potential of technology in the same way as boys do and whether boys do not have the same opportunities as girls to come to their parents with their negative online experiences.