Domestication of Technology in Everyday Life

This sixth chapter analyses and discusses the diverse uses and outcomes of digital technology in children’s lives. The chapter facilitates an appreciation for the particularities of their technological appropriation as children growing up in particular circumstances. The chapter’s themes emphasise the notion of domestication, through which adolescents metaphorically adapt technologies to their realities while negotiating childhood. Discussed in this chapter are a number of broad themes focusing on socialities, especially communication and interaction with friends and family, cultivation and maintenance of peer culture, entertainment, self-care and destressing, as well as educational productivity and information-seeking. The chapter concludes by shedding light on factors, particularly a lack of digital literacy and skills, that prevent children from fully exploring and taking advantage of digital opportunities.