Questioning "digital global generations". A critical approach

Aroldi, P., COLOMBO (2013). Questioning "digital global generations". A critical approach. Northern Lights. Film and Media Studies Yearbook, 11, 175-190.

Abstract: In the recent sociological debate, the concept of the generation has been used increas-ingly frequently as a tool for interpreting current social change and the role playedby the young in this process. This wave, which also involves media discourses,has created a sort of narrative, whose main feature is the existence of a ‘digital global generation’ characterized by the use of Internet and mobile devices. This new generation has been described as being very similar to that of the protagonists of social movements of the 1960s. This article discusses and criticizes this ‘genera-tional storytelling’ from two different perspectives: on one hand, it focuses on a morecomplex definition of the generation and its connections with mediascapes, while onthe other, through evidence that demonstrates the ‘glocal’ dimension of the web, it confronts the complexity of the concept of social ‘activity’ and the powerful role of inter-generational interaction in the shaping of collective identities