Young children’s literacy practices in a virtual world: Establishing an online interaction order

Marsh, Jackie. (2011). Young children’s literacy practices in a virtual world: Establishing an online interaction order. Reading Research Quarterly, 46(2), 101-118.

This British case study looked at how children function within online environments, in terms of both literacy practices and social practices. The study used a “funneling” approach, first surveying 175 children ages 5-11 about their online practices, then narrowing to interviews of 26 children, and finally, observing three target children on several occasions as they accessed a popular children’s online networking site, Club Penguin (owned by the Disney Corporation).

Electronic media are tools that can be used for many purposes, and those purposes can be perceived as good, bad, or indifferent. It is clear that literacy skills were needed to participate on the site, and that important skills for being literate, and socially connected, in our increasingly digital world could be developed by children accessing Club Penguin. However, one can never forget the corporate connections of many sites like this, and that the primary motivation of the developers is to market and sell products. Thinking about this gets worrisome when one realizes, as the author says, that there is a definite intent to get children “acculturated into shopping as a key cultural practice” (p 110), and that children with the economic capital to acquire paid memberships on such sites are privileged above children who are limited to the free memberships. Social and economic status can operate in the virtual environment, just as they do in the face to face environment. Even in the virtual world, there clearly are “haves” and “have-nots” economically and/or socially. More and more, success seems to be judged on whether we can get “stuff” and possess things, whether material or virtual. Sites like this seem to perpetuate the capitalist, corporate ethic that already saturates our media and our culture.

There have to be a lot of challenges for those who are trying to raise young children today that were not there when I was younger. My parents worried about television and its influence, but with the explosion of what is available on the Internet now, the challenges have to be greater. In just the last few years, social networking has burgeoned and children’s sites have proliferated. Children are using the computer and going online at earlier ages and in greater numbers. So how can we nurture children to get the good things they will need to survive out of these sites, but not become part of what Marsh calls “the corporate manufacture of imperialist fantasy” (p. 104) or “engagement in a commercialized network” (p. 110)? Marsh carefully remains nonjudgmental in her overall analysis here, but she hints strongly at the danger. The key to me for parents and teachers of young children is to stay informed and be vigilant. We cannot prevent children from accessing some sites, nor would we always want to. They will need to know how to navigate the online environment to be full participants in society. We do, however, need to monitor what children are exposed to and talk with them about the values and purposes embodied by the sites they visit. I fear that busy adults in this electronic and frantically busy world may not always be able to provide the needed mentoring as children develop digital literacies, and corporate entities will more than willing to jump into that void and do their own kind of shaping.