ERIC Number: EJ764705
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2007
Pages: 22
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0907-5682
EISSN: N/A
Computer and Video Games in Family Life: The Digital Divide as a Resource in Intergenerational Interactions
Aarsand, Pal Andre
Childhood: A Global Journal of Child Research, v14 n2 p235-256 2007
In this ethnographic study of family life, intergenerational video and computer game activities were videotaped and analysed. Both children and adults invoked the notion of a digital divide, i.e. a generation gap between those who master and do not master digital technology. It is argued that the digital divide was exploited by the children to control the game activities. Conversely, parents and grandparents positioned themselves as less knowledgeable, drawing on a displayed divide as a rhetorical resource for gaining access to playtime with the children. In these intergenerational encounters, the digital divide was thus an interactional resource rather than a problem. (Contains 14 notes.)
Descriptors: Age Differences, Video Games, Family Life, Ethnography, Access to Computers, Information Technology, Computer Literacy, Knowledge Level, Interaction, Computers, Games, Role of Education, Family (Sociological Unit), Social Environment, Foreign Countries, Videotape Recordings, Discourse Analysis, Phenomenology
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Italy; Sweden; United States
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A