Children's Digital Capital in the Digital Era: Forms & Functions

Today’s adolescents have grown in a world where technology and social networks are integral parts of their life. While some of the promises of technology in helping children are obvious, the continued proliferation of digital technology also poses risks to children’s safety, privacy, and well-being. In addition to concerns for safe and secure digital engagement, there are also concerns related to the digital potential of aggravating the existing disparities in social life. The technology does not make us all equal to enter the “flat world.” The new modes of digital communication may widen the gap between different social groups, favoring the groups with better socio-economic status while lagging their disadvantaged peers in fulfilling their potentials. Following sociologist Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of ‘habitus’ and social practice (Bourdieu, 1989), this study argues that the diffusion of digital technology has created new ‘habitus’ to produce different forms of digital capital, which will throw individuals into new domains and new interrelations between economic resources, internalized aptitudes, and social positioning through productions and reproduction. Internet and digital technology may even compound the deprivation for children who are already in a disadvantaged situation with limited resources and less preparedness. Adopting an interdisciplinary perspective intersecting social and behavioral study with cybersecurity, this study proposes to conceptualize the digital capital with the following three domains to encompass the multidimensionality of this concept: external capital, bridging capital, and internal capital. Empirical evidence from surveys will also be integrated to illuminate the effective factors to cultivate children’s digital capital and to promote children’s meaningful digital engagement. This study will contribute to the discussions of building equitable societies to enhance the individual flourishing in an increasingly digital mediated world.