CONNECT: The interplay between policies, norms, and social relations in youths’ digitalized everyday life

The pervasive digitization of daily life influences how young people form and maintain social relationships. Recent research highlights growing concerns that this development may contribute to digital distractions, loneliness and poor well-being among youth. These concerns have led to a range of political initiatives in several countries. In Denmark, for example, the Wellbeing Commission has recommended smartphone-free youth education, while policymakers in Australia have introduced bans on social media for young people under the age of 16.

Despite these measures, we still know relatively little about how formal policies interact with informal group norms and young people’s own practices—and how this interplay can promote or hinder social relationships. CONNECT investigates and theorizes this interplay. The project employs an innovative multi-method research design, combining policy analysis with ethnographic studies of group norms and individual practices. The aim is to generate new knowledge about how digital frameworks, political regulations, and young people’s social everyday lives mutually shape each other.

A two-part research project

The CONNECT research project consists of two parts.

The first part is based on policy analysis. From January 2026, we will collect local policies for the use of digital technologies from all high schools in Denmark. The analyses will reveal how digital technologies, from a policy perspective, are constituted as either risks or resources—or both—in the building of strong local communities and social relationships. Drawing on Carol Bacchi, a pioneer in critical policy analysis, we ask the question “What is the Problem Represented to be?” and examine how problems and solutions are produced, as well as what views of youth and values regarding youth participation are expressed in these policies.

The second part adopts a youth perspective and investigates the informal social norms and practices that emerge in interaction with and in response to high schools’ policies on digital behavior. Data will be generated through an ethnographic study combining traditional and digital ethnography with focus groups and interviews in high school classes. Data collection will take place at selected schools and begin in the second half of 2026.

Both parts of the project encompass all types of digital technologies—from everyday SMS communication to Snapchat, Snap Map, and generative AI. The focus is not on the platforms themselves, but on the everyday practices that unfold with and across platforms, technologies, and physical spaces such as the classroom.

About the Project

The full title of the research project is ‘CONNECT: Unpacking policies, norms and everyday practices that shape young people’s socio-digital connectivity in turbulent times’.

The principal investigator of CONNECT is Ditte Andersen, Professor MSO, while researcher Alexandrina Schmidt holds a 2-year postdoc position on the project. Student assistant Camilla Storgaard is also affiliated with the project.

CONNECT collaborates with Professor Ellen Helsper at the Digital Futures for Children Centre at the London School of Economics (LSE). The project also has a group of external advisors (advisory board) who provide academic sparring and perspectives throughout the process.

The advisory board consists of:

• Sonia Livingstone, Professor and Director of the ‘Digital Futures for Children’ Centre at LSE
• Morten Hjelholt, Professor and Vice Dean for Research, IT University of Copenhagen
• Jakob Demant, Professor at the Department of Sociology, University of Copenhagen
• Andreas Lieberoth, Associate Professor at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University

The Independent Research Fund Denmark has supported the project with a grant of DKK 3,161,520.