Rude or shrewd? Reframing media devices as care structures and child use as accommodation

Abstract

Communication research has traditionally defined its subject as language and the chief gratification of media use as the exchange of information between senders and receivers. However, information exchange falls short as an explanation for child media practices like those described in Gaming Disorder, recently classified as a disease by the World Health Organization. Why have devices become so enmeshed in children’s lives, both inside and outside the home? Using research on the media practices of children with disabilities like autism and ADHD as a template, this commentary calls for an ecological reconceptualization of media devices as “care structures” that provide not just children with disabilities, but all children, with largely unrecognized accommodations beyond the standard informational, emotional, and relational gratifications specified in traditional media gratifications research. Understanding “media curb cuts” and other unacknowledged accommodations will be essential for making sense of children’s attachments to media and finding solutions for family conflict associated with child media use.