ERIC Number: EJ873421
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2006
Pages: 17
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1741-8887
EISSN: N/A
"MSN Was the next Big Thing after Beanie Babies": Children's Virtual Experiences as an Interface to Their Identities and Their Everyday Lives
Thomas, Angela
E-Learning, v3 n2 p126-142 2006
In this article the author explores the seamlessness between children's online and offline worlds. For children, there is no dichotomy of online and offline, or virtual and real; the digital is so much intertwined into their lives and psyche that the one is entirely enmeshed with the other. Despite early research pointing to the differences that mark the virtual as a space of "otherness", the author suggests that the fabric of children's everyday lives knows no such distinct demarcation, and that what they do in their virtual worlds significantly affects how they connect to society. Moreover, through the virtual, children are simultaneously engaging in acts of self-reflection, self-fashioning and identity formation. Using data from a longitudinal ethnographic study of children online, the author illuminates a number of case studies which support this argument. She does this by using narrative accounts based on extensive interviews with the children. (Contains 1 note and 3 figures.)
Descriptors: Ethnography, Children, Childhood Attitudes, Longitudinal Studies, Case Studies, Child Development, Social Environment, Self Concept, Adolescents, Foreign Countries, Interviews, Discourse Analysis, Cognitive Processes, Computer Mediated Communication, Internet, Multimedia Materials, Web Sites, Influence of Technology, Synchronous Communication, Role Playing, Affective Behavior, Computer Simulation, Adolescent Attitudes, Adolescent Development
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Elementary Secondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Australia; Canada
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A