Youth digital socialization and their other intervening factors

Abstract

The present article assesses the influence of different social factors on youth digital socialization itineraries and, in particular, on the existence of problematic behaviours related to the exposure to digital environments. Firstly, we present a digital socialization model based on previous documentary research (Gordo et al., 2018). The model includes three types of factors: (i) the structural variables of “income level” and “education level”; (ii) sociotechnical variables, linked to the design of digital platforms; and (iii) intervening variables involved in the digital socialization process, such as “active mediation” and “learning styles”. Secondly, we present the results of a multi-panel Delphi study designed to contrast the proposed model of youth digital socialization (Gordo et al., 2019). The results suggest that, in the new digital context, the intervening variables became more relevant than the structural ones in defining youth digital socialization pathways. In the discussion section, we argue that digital environments open up new possibilities for social differentiation that are relatively in/dependent (or co-dependent) of the level of income and education. Based on the findings, we close the article with three proposals for the design of digital educational agendas.