ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the aim of the book as advancing new knowledge about young children in digital society. Technologies are part of societies and develop and emerge in new forms over time. Earlier technologies, such as radio and television, have attracted research and community attention in their time, just as newer internet-connected technologies and artificial intelligence are now attracting contemporary attention and concern regarding their role in the lives of young children. As research has traditionally relied on examining the influence of technologies on young children, so too has an implicit reliance on technological determinism limited the capacity of research to keep pace with changing technologies over time. A cultural study of technologies centres attention on the interface between social practices and technologies, or how people interact with and use digital technologies in situ. A project – Young Children in Digital Society – is presented as one such cultural study of technologies based on the Early Childhood Australia (2018) Statement on Young Children and Digital Technologies.
