Screen time, the Displacement hypothesis and digital determinism

- How digital media constrain children’s developmental processes.

Abstract

Over the past years, children’s increased screen time has raised the question of how digital media may or may not influence developmental processes due to the displacement of everyday activities. However, the notion of screen time and this displacement-logic risk conceptualizing various digital media as a uniform variable independent of contexts having monocausal effects on children’s development. In this article, I will discuss the displacement-hypothesis’ developmental methodology. Through sociocultural theory, I will present a theoretical framework with sensitivity to the interdependence between child-media-practice and the emergence and stabilization of developmental processes in irreversible time. The analysis draws upon an explorative review concerning children’s screen time and a qualitative empirical project concerning how children use the digital media TikTok. With this, I will analyze how children (re)produce meanings on collective and personal levels through TikTok and how these meaning processes constrain children’s developmental opportunities.

Keywords:
TikTok, screen time, the displacement hypothesis, developmental psychology