This is a summary work by David Buckingham: Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001 The book is available FREE. This is a revised presentation in which I have removed the discussion on Sherry Turkle and created a new one.

1. Identity and Self
ICT & 21ST CENTURY LEARNING COMMUNITIES EDUC 90591
Nick Reynolds

2. Youth, Identity, and Digital Media
 What is ‘identity’?
 How it is used today:
 Identity theft
 self actualisation
 cultural, national independence
 ‘identity’
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David Buckingham. The John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

3. “Globalization, the decline of the welfare state,
increasing social mobility, greater flexibility in
employment, insecurity in personal relationships
—all these developments are contributing to a
sense of fragmentation and uncertainty, in which
the traditional resources for identity formation
are no longer so straightforward or so easily
available” (p. 1)
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and
Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

4. Psychological accounts of identity
(development)
 Blogs as a source of identity formation or self
awareness development
 Myspace* for social development and
affiliation
 *(This is a 2008 book. One could easily
replace Myspace with Facebook)
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

5. Sociological accounts of identity
(socialisation)
 Nature of youth varies significantly according
to the social context
 Gen X (and following) “youth” is essentially a
social and historical construct, rather than a
universal state of being (p. 4)
 Discussion Point
 Did (do) generations see themselves in terms
of this construct?
 When did it start?
 Why did it start?
 Who created this construct?
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David Buckingham. The John
D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008.
1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

6.  ‘how a sense of group belonging or “community” is
developed and maintained, and how groups
discriminate against outsiders; how the boundaries
between groups operate, and how groups relate to
each other’
 ‘As a result, the formation of identity often involves a
process of stereotyping or “cognitive simplification”
that allows people to distinguish easily between self
and other, and to define themselves and their group
in positive ways’ (p. 6)
Research focus on radical/underground not on
‘mundane, mainstream middle class youth’
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

7.  Distinction between ‘front stage’ and ‘back
stage’ identity (Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in
Everyday Life (New York: Anchor Books, 1959))
 Who we are in different settings
 Identity politics and the debate about the use
of identity (e.g., ‘women’) as a label for a
hugely complex and various group
 Other labels of identity
 Gay, young, old, black, white …
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

8. Social Theory
 Reduction in the influence of ‘traditional’
institutions – religion
 Replaced by ‘self-help’ and ‘guidance’
 ‘Foucault argues that who we are—or who we
perceive ourselves to be—is far from a matter
of individual choice; on the contrary, it is the
product of powerful and subtle forms of
“governmentality” that are characteristic of
modern liberal democracies’ (p.10).
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

9. Technology
 ‘The telephone, for example, was celebrated
for the way in which it could make business
more efficient and facilitate more democratic
forms of social life, yet it was also
condemned for its disruption of intimate
relationships and its unsettling of established
social hierarchies’ (p.11).
 Use of SMS as the favoured communication
method for many young people
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

10. Technology
 ‘Technology is then seen to have effects—to bring
about social and psychological changes—
irrespective of the ways in which it is used, and of the
social contexts and processes into which it enters
 Like the printing press, television, and other new
technologies that preceded it, the computer is seen
as an autonomous force that is somehow
independent of human society and acts upon it from
outside’ (p.11)
 Unanticipated consequences of technologies –
affordance
 ‘technology is both socially shaped and socially
shaping’ (from Raymond Williams, Television: Technology and Cultural
Form (Glasgow: Fontana, 1974).
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

11. Affordance
 James Gibson, 1979. An Ecological Approach
to Visual Perception
 The relational properties between an organism
and the environment
 “It is equally a fact of the environment and a
fact of behaviour. It is both physical and
psychical, yet neither. An affordance points
both ways, to the environment and to the
observer” (Gibson 1979 p. 129).

12. Affordance and co-perception
 The act of perception of the environment
(externally) is also, at the same time, an act
of perception of oneself (internally)

13. ‘Digital Natives’
 Prensky
 ‘digital natives have a very different style of
learning: they crave interactivity, they value
graphics before words; they want random
access, and they operate at the “twitch speed”
of video games and MTV’
 Compare with Kennedy
 http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet24/kennedy.html

14. Technology as empowering, positive
and the way of the future
 ‘This relentlessly optimistic view inevitably ignores
many of the down sides of these technologies—
 the undemocratic tendencies of many online
“communities”
 the limited nature of much so-called digital learning and
the grinding tedium of much technologically driven
work
 wholly positive view of [young people’s] critical
intelligence and social responsibility that is deliberately
at odds with that of many social commentators
 It is also bound to ignore the continuing “digital divide”
between the technology rich and the technology poor,
both within and between societies’ (p. 14).
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

15. Concerns
 Risks to young people beyond pornography
and paedophiles – negative physical and
psychological consequences
 The ‘banality’ of much new media use
 ‘Recent studies suggest that most young
people’s everyday uses of the Internet are
characterized not by spectacular forms of
innovation and creativity, but by relatively
mundane forms of communication and
information retrieval’ (p.14)
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001

16. Digital Literacy Needed
 New communication grammars
 Nuance is understood through simple icons or
abbreviations
 New curriculum approaches that look at
‘Interactions and Impacts’ (Australian Curriculum, Digital
Technologies), as well as more ‘traditional’
computing practices such as coding,
algorithms, computational thinking

17. Digital Literacy
 ‘Perhaps most importantly, a focus on identity
requires us to pay close attention to the
diverse ways in which media and
technologies are used in everyday life, and
their consequences both for individuals and
for social groups. It entails viewing young
people as significant social actors in their own
right, as “beings,” and not simply as
“becomings” who should be judged in terms
of their projected futures’ (p. 19).
Buckingham, D. (2008) “Introducing Identity." Youth, Identity, and Digital Media. Edited by David
Buckingham. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2008. 1–24. doi:10.1162/dmal.9780262524834.001