Migranti, Social media e percorsi di socializzazione di lungo raggio: Ancora sull'uso dei social media

Abstract

In a previous work related to the use of digital media among migrants, we highlighted the importance of the specific effect that use of digital and social media determines in the construction of the "story" of the migratory experience, both for those who are the actors and for the listener, welcoming, once again, Marshall McLuhan's assumption that "the medium is the message" ... In fact the use of this medium, among others, can be considered, in itself, a choice that directs each of the different phases of the migratory process, that is: the one in which migrants design, the one in which migrants realize, the one in which migrants tell. And finally, the one in which relationships between migrants are built and the "online story" is shared [Lo Verde, 2016]. From an analytical point of view, in fact, the use of information and communication technologies by migrants has been classified on the basis of three methods of use anchored to different phases of the same migration experience, each of which constitutes, however, a research field on which several scholars have concentrated [Kozachenko, 2013, 6]: use in the "pre-migration" phase; use in the post-travel phase; the use put in place in a third phase, that is, what the migrants have been doing for several years now in the country of destination. Indeed, it would seem that the cross-border experience increases digital skills [Georgiu, Ponte, cit .; Madianou, Miller 2012] which, in some way, facilitate the awareness of being characterized by a "cosmopolitan" social identity, especially among the very young. And we want to refer to these aspects here. Digital media - which we hereby interchangeably call social media or digital media - can be an instrument - as they already are - very powerful for acquiring basic and specific social skills in the host society. But at the same time, their use determines, for this particular age group, a risk that should not be underestimated.