Digital media are an integral part of our lives. Mobile phones, computers and tablets are regularly used by young and old for entertainment, relaxation, work, school work, communication and a range of other tasks. Varied public responses to digital media use range from enthusiasm to concern, especially when it comes to children and adolescents. Amidst these reactions, core sociological questions about how digital practices are woven into the social fabric have been left unanswered.

This dissertation investigates how digital media are embedded in the lives of children and adolescents, their families, and the broader social worlds they inhabit. I use a multi-methods approach to study digital media use by employing survey data linked to Swedish administrative registers, and interviews with parents of children who use digital media. This dissertation consists of three single-authored articles, each studying different angles of the digital media lives of children and adolescents.

Study I uses the Swedish Kids and Media survey to examine the relationship between gaming, social media use and socioeconomic background. While prior research has emphasized age and gender as primary drivers of digital media patterns, it has largely overlooked how these factors moderate the influence of socioeconomic background. By accounting for age and gender, I find that differences in use between children of different backgrounds grow with age, where older adolescents whose parents have lower education are more likely to report spending at least four hours using gaming or social media on a regular day, compared to peers whose parents have a higher education. I also find that, while patterns are similar across genders, the types of digital media used vary: Differences are largest for boys’ gaming, and girls’ social media use.

Study II also uses the Swedish Kids and media survey, this time to investigate how digital media use fits into the broader landscape of daily activities. I use latent class analysis on a range of self-reported online- and offline activities among teenagers to create types of users who report similar activity combinations. I identify three distinct user profiles: offline entertainment, gamers, and high media users. These groups show internal coherence within the reported activities, and challenge the assumption that digital media use necessarily displaces other activities. In explaining the variation between the generated classes, I also find stark gender- and family background differences, while digital confidence, self-efficacy, plays only a minor role in explaining the classes.

In Study III qualitative analysis is used on interviews with parents of middle-school-aged children to develop a framework for understanding the role of digital media within families. To capture the various hopes and worries involved in parenting around digital media, the analysis establishes that it is central to consider the social context of use as a primary concern for parents: a spectrum ranging from solitary individual use to interaction with known peers, and finally to anonymous social engagement. This article details how parents navigate this spectrum by tailoring their mediation approaches to their child while weighing the benefits and risks of different levels of digital media use.

This thesis contributes to the study of digital media use among children and adolescents by providing connections to social structure, everyday life, and the family.