Everyday social media use of young Australian adults

Abstract

Current research on young people’s social media use tends to revolve around notable and spectacular forms of usage, and usage by specific identity-based groups on specific sites. The everyday social media use of ‘ordinary’ young people and its theoretical significance for youth sociology is less often considered. This paper presents findings derived from longitudinal data collected from 446 young Australians about their social media use. Using Couldry’s (2012. Media, Society, World: Social Theory and Digital Media Practice. Cambridge: Polity Press) media-related practices as a dual methodological and conceptual lens, we examine how their social media practices are embedded in the broader social practices of Australian young people. In so doing, we seek to understand how media are used by young people as a tool or resource to navigate their everyday lives in changing social contexts, and suggest that this process is directly contributing to their active creation of a new experience of adulthood. We ultimately contend that the media-related practices that we identify demonstrate how young people experience and negotiate the power of social media in shaping their everyday practices, which affords an opportunity to account for media’s role in constituting the shifting social ontology experienced by young people.