Learning in A Digital World

What are young people’s opportunities today? Do their social and digital networks offer new routes to learning? What is the meaning of education in a digitally connected but fiercely competitive and individualised world?

At the RSA, Professor Sonia Livingstone presents the results of her most recent fieldwork, based on the experiences of young teenagers growing up and learning in a digital world. In her study she explores youth values and prospects as well as tactics for facing the opportunities and challenges ahead.

Using real-life examples, Livingstone offers insight into young people’s everyday lives, and unveils how the structures of social class and cultural capital shape the development of personal interests, relationships and autonomy. She finds that, despite inhabiting a connected and technologically rich world, all too often the more common experience for young people is one not of connection and opportunity but of disconnection and blocked pathways.