Illustration: James Steinberg
Among the many publications by Ioana Literat, Assistant Profes颅sor of Design, is the Snail, a children鈥檚 book about digital technol颅ogy and friendship. The hero uses his shell phone and Crab鈥檚 List to find a homeless pal new accommodations. Subtitled 鈥渁 story about the Internet, by the Internet,鈥� was crowd-sourced by more than 100 online contributors via Amazon鈥檚 Mechanical Turk marketplace.
鈥淐hildren鈥檚 books about the Internet are mostly about bullying, piracy and addiction,鈥� says 鈥淚 wanted kids to know they can use the Internet to connect with peers and find safe spaces to experiment with creativity.鈥�
grew up in post-revolution Roma颅nia鈥檚 lingering authoritarian climate. She left via a scholarship to the United World College in Canada, studied at the University of South颅ern California with transmedia guru and worked in India, field-coordinating a digital storytelling program in public schools. Currently, she鈥檚 exploring the 鈥減olitical social颅ization鈥� of youth online.
鈥淭he attitudes cultivated in youth about civic life leave a lasting impression. Young peo颅ple may feel disconnected from and skeptical about politics, but they鈥檙e also very involved in online spaces. There鈥檚 much to learn in revamping civic education.鈥�
Now Literat and of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem are an颅alyzing youth postings to sites such as Pixilart, Scratch, Know Your Meme, HITRECORD and Archive of Our Own immediately after the 2016 presidential election. They鈥檝e found hundreds of election-related games, memes, fan fiction, digital art, collaborative animations and other creations expressing young people鈥檚 political stances and concerns.
Young peo颅ple may feel disconnected from and skeptical about politics, but they鈥檙e also very involved in online spaces.鈥�
鈥� Ioana Literat, Assistant Profes颅sor of Communication, Media & Learning Technology Design
鈥淚n times of crisis, youth don鈥檛 have much support in terms of what to believe,鈥� Literat says. 鈥淭he number one fear is of intolerance and racism 鈥� 鈥榃hat will happen to me and my friends?鈥� It breaks my heart, but it鈥檚 beautiful that young people have safe spaces to express themselves, communicate and grow as citizens. I鈥檓 not a technological determinist by any means, but there鈥檚 something very special about the moment we鈥檙e living in.鈥�