‘Your mum didn’t take selfies’: Youth and image cultures on social media
Youth and image cultures on social media
This panel discussion traces the contemporary dynamics of young people’s image cultures, foregrounding their own imaging practices as part of the broader social media landscape shaping identity and self-presentation.
Young people’s selfie-taking is often dismissed as frivolous and self-absorbed, or couched in pathologising terms linked with eating disorders, body dysmorphia, depression, low self-esteem and anxiety. Debates about young people and social media visual cultures often oversimplify the complex ways young people navigate their digital worlds and obscure the profoundly social nature of issues and harms that can arise (Dobson and Coffey, 2015, Gill 2023). Too often such debates take place without any involvement from young people themselves. By contrast, our approach to these issues is sociologically and culturally driven.
Based careful and empathetic engagements with 89 young people in a 3 year study using interviews and creative visual workshops, we explore the challenges, opportunities, and complex social and emotional experiences young people face. Drawing on our expertise as scholars of society, culture, and media, we contextualise their experiences and them with broader socio-cultural shifts in relation to digital and social media.
Speakers:
- Julia Coffey (University of Newcastle)
- Rosalind Gill (Goldsmiths, England)
- Akane Kanai (University of Warwick, England)
- Amy Dobson (Curtin University)
- Niamh White (Monash University)
- Kiah Hawker (University of Queensland)
Event Information
- Date: Wednesday 19 November 2025 from 5:00pm - 6:30pm
- Duration: 90mins
- Location: Online
The University of Newcastle acknowledges the traditional custodians of the lands within our footprint areas: Awabakal, Darkinjung, Biripai, Worimi, Wonnarua, and Eora Nations. We also pay respect to the wisdom of our Elders past and present.