A CRITICAL REVIEW OF YOUTH, DIGITAL NETWORKS, AND CULTURAL NEGOTIATION
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53555/5vtd5m49Keywords:
Digital Urbanism, Youth and Social Media, Network Society, Identity Formation, Intercultural Adaptation, Cultural Power, Networked Publics, Algorithmic VisibilityAbstract
Social media has become deeply embedded in the everyday lives of young people, reshaping urban experience, social interaction, and cultural engagement, particularly among college students navigating educational transition and urban relocation. Digitally mediated communication now functions not merely as a tool but as a structuring environment through which identity, belonging, and intercultural adaptation are organised. This article critically reviews interdisciplinary literature on urban sociology, network society theory, symbolic interactionism, cultural power, and intercultural adaptation to examine social media’s role in contemporary urban life. Drawing on Louis Wirth’s conception of urbanism as a way of life, Manuel Castells’ theory of the network society, and Danah Boyd’s concept of networked publics, the review situates social media as constitutive of digital urbanism rather than external to it. Particular attention is given to the Indian–Mizo context, characterised by recent urbanisation, strong communitarian traditions, and increasing exposure to global digital cultures, highlighting how local histories and moral regulation shape social media practices and complicate universalist assumptions derived from Western and metropolitan contexts. The article identifies key conceptual and methodological gaps in existing scholarship and advances the need for a contextual digital urban sociology that is context-sensitive, theoretically grounded, and attentive to regional diversity.
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