Digital wellbeing, children and youth
beyond-pathologization perspectives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24220/2595-9557v6a2023e7005Keywords:
Digital wellbeing, Children and teenagers, Attention economy, Internet addictionAbstract
This article elaborates a theoretical reflection based upon a critique of the pathological perspective of digital wellbeing, which defines this concept by its negative, associated with the lack of mental disorders linked to the digital environment, such as internet addiction. The pathological approach has two main weaknesses. First, a methodological emphasis on screen time as a defining variable of digital wellbeing. Then, negligence related
to structural aspects of the digital environment, such as the attention economy and the dynamics of persuasive technologies. In the case of children and adolescents, these weaknesses are aggravated since the current generation of children and adolescents occupies an unprecedented place in the face of new digital technologies. Three possible alternative approaches to studying the digital wellbeing of children and adolescents
will be presented to address these gaps. These new paradigms emphasize the importance of dissociating research about digital wellbeing from a technological deterministic framework since the effects of digital technologies are complex and relate to users’ individual aspects and practices and structural issues.
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