2025/03/05 by Clara Julia Reich, Kamilla Knutsen Steinnes, Helene Fiane Teigen · 1 voice
Social Sciences · #Youth Education and Societal Dynamics #Participatory Visual Research Methods #Cultural Industries and Urban Development
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/1369118x.2025.2472949
openalex publication_date 2025/03/05 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Children draw on consumer culture to create sameness, engage in conversation, be recognized by peers, and belong. They engage in facework to overcome inequalities and participate in ‘economies of dignity’ coined by Pugh (2009) in longing and belonging: parents, children, and consumer culture. Social media platforms are an important part of children’s lives; their digital and non-digital spheres are intertwined, and their lives are datafied. Building on this, we extend Pugh’s (2009) concept to the digital economy of dignity. Taking a child-centered approach, this article scrutinizes social media platforms’ role in children’s social practices forming their digital economies of dignity situated in the datafication of childhood. The empirical data set includes 51 semi-structured interviews and three focus group discussions with 40 Norwegian children aged 10–13 years. We highlight how children negotiate meaning on, across, and beyond social media platforms as they navigate parental restrictions, social media trends promoted by content creators, and platform recommender systems. Our informants engage in self-presentation and enact parts of their identities (e.g., class, age, gender) in practices following peer group norms. Social media platforms amplify opportunities for creating belonging yet may also make inequalities visible; here, children engage in digital facework that entails bridging differences via knowing instead of owning, planning, and monitoring prices, exposing, and claiming. This article contributes to the ongoing discourse on the complex and evolving role of social media in children’s consumption and identity practices in the data-driven landscape of childhood.