Digital generation? Giovani e nuove tecnologie della comunicazione, al di là degli stereotipi

Young people seem to have a peculiar relationship with Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and some scholars are accostumed to refer to them as a generation of “digital natives”. Such a rhetoric approach, very common in social discourses, is here questioned because it tends to hide the complexity of the sociological notion of “generation” and the differences still standing among young people about digital and internet literacies: a sort of digital divide in access and uses, affecting both intragenerational and intergenerational relationships. Digital competences for identity expression, social and political participation, learning and creativity are evaluated as far as tools for empowering youth’s agency and life-chances, focussing on conflicting dynamics of emancipation, on the one side, and reproduction of social, economic and cultural capitals of the families, on the other side.