Contained in Crises: Youth’s Experience of (Digital) Familyhood During COVID-19

Abstract

During COVID-19, children confined in households experience prevalent levels of loneliness and relationship conflict. To mitigate this challenge, youth have proliferated their use of digital media and virtual worlds (MMORPGs) for socialization. To understand their experiences, I conducted a quantitative content analysis on five games of an MMORPG website that is popular with children since the pandemic. This method is coupled with non-revealing in-game screenshots of players and settings where these practices occurred. I identify these five titles as family-themed, scoring higher in markers of differentiation, connectedness, and lower on family depictions. These results aligned with the primary hypothesis, which predicted a higher frequency of differentiation and connection on the games’ home pages than its family codes. A discussion of the data highlighted the symbolic nature of digital familyhood, meaning making, and opportunities for the differentiation of the self, per Bowen’s Family Systems Theory (1976). Implications are explored for the increasing use of technology and the concept of digital connection. Moreover, I warn of the pitfalls in relying too much on technology to socialize, through my original concept of the digitalized other.