ABSTRACT
Do young people derive benefits from digital media? We investigate this question by unpacking the concept of digital capital from the perspectives of youth and in context of the digital age. We posit a model of digital capital by/for young people that is material and symbolic, social and cultural, individual and collective. Digital capital comprises possible benefits (symbolic, social, cultural, and monetary) that stem from access, skill, knowledge, and competence in navigating the digital age. In addition, the social and economic organization of the digital age and its ecologies (including tools and ways of living online) create opportunities, barriers, and inequalities that youth must also traverse. We describe this productive interplay between individual practices and structural relations in which youth navigate networks of resources and relationships. Depending upon how youth access, use, and make meaning of digital tools and ways of living, capital can be cashed out as valued knowledge, skills, networks, and dollars. Against the macrosocial backdrop of a technological worldview and ambitions of technology companies, the model demonstrates how young people have waded into the digital age in hopes of leveraging digital capital. However, trepidation about individualization, inequality, and loss of human connection is an important narrative arc.
