UC Irvine

Today, we are in the midst of a technology panic characterized by a fearful response to the rapid, nearly universal adoption of a new technology by preschool-aged children which did not exist a relatively short time ago: internet-connected touch screens. The focus on screen harms from some voices within child development research, professional organizations, news media, and lay groups effect policy which in turn can impact family life and daily activities that are important to children. I endeavor to contextualize screen use in the daily lives of children and better represent the voice of the young child in the screen use debate. To approach these goals, I conducted a year-long, multi-case ethnography of 15 children aged 3 or 4 at the start of data collection from 13 diverse families across multiple communities in Southern California. I found that young children’s media use may be best understood as an ecologically situated process involving the interplay between the content, the child, their family, community, and societal spheres. Children’s media behaviors are supported or constrained by a range of resource, culture, and policy factors specific to family and community background. I argue that policy makers and technology designers are better served by an ecological perspective if they wish to understand how digital content used by children in sociocultural context.