ABSTRACT
This chapter utilizes the lessons from Standing Rock to explore civic agency gaps that emerge when young people use online technologies for consumption and expression without positioning them as supplementary tools for civic action taking and engagement. The findings presented in this chapter emerge from research conducted in 2015–2016 on networks and civic action taking with young people from around the world. Making sense of action taking in the world, and what motivates humans to participate in civic processes, provides no easy answers or clear frameworks. In digital culture, how people understand and shape the structures they act within, the communities they inhabit, and the relations that emerge within such communities takes on new meaning. Connective technologies have led to a groundswell of participatory actions and initiatives, and have emboldened people to express and support ideas they value. Information sharing is generally considered a positive outcome for civic engagement via social networks.
