Media micro-generations: How new technologies change our media morality

Abstract

This article proposes and explores the notion of “media micro-generations”. Based on a survey of values and norms in relation to media-related behaviour in Sweden, we identify statistically significant media micro-generations. Through an analysis of the technologies that were introduced during the formative years of different media micro-generations, we propose that media micro-generations are formed with the introduction of new media technologies. Thus, the existence of media micro-generations illustrates how rapid transformations of media technologies can shape the moral notions of narrow age groups. It also explains why many earlier studies have detected a rather large span of years (1970-1985, in between the TV generation and the internet generation) during which no generational identity seems to have been formed.