Welcome to the launch of Dr. John Magnus R. Dahl’s book : Teen Boys and their Smartphones as Worldmaking Devices. 5th of September we invite to an event in which our previous Postdoctoral researcher Dahl presents how he spent two years on ethnographic fieldwork, following six teenage boys on- and offline to find out how they use their smartphones to create a world for themselves and their peers.

He asked himself: What is it like to be a young man in the age of the smartphone?

He concludes, among other things, that the smartphone is a crucial tool for creating the kinds of social relationships the boys consider important, and thus a way to increase freedom and agency in their own lives. Furthermore, he shows that this is especially significant for minority boys: queer boys and boys with immigrant backgrounds use their phones differently than straight, white boys.

John Magnus R. Dahl

The launch will take the form of a book conversation between Dahl and Professor Kristine Jørgensen, project leader of Understanding Masculinity in Gaming, followed by an opportunity for questions. The conversation will be held in English. and light refreshments will be served.

The book is published by Palgrave Macmillan and is based on the research Dahl conducted as a postdoctoral fellow at MediaFutures (UiB) from 2021 to 2024. He is now employed as Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen.

The e-book is available here, and a longer article about the book’s findings can be read here (in Norwegian).