”YouTube är allt!" : En kvalitativ undersökning om barns upplevelser av Youtube som social och kulturell plattform

Sammanfattning: The aim of this study has been to investigate why children spend time on Youtube. The study tries to answer the question why by taking part of childrens thoughts on Youtube as a digital room and what kind of feelings and emotions they experience while spending time there. The study shows that the informants spend time on Youtube to learn things they themselves think of as useful and interesting, in an enjoyful way and together with others with whom they have a shared interest. The study also shows that the informants spend time on Youtube in order to experience strong feelings, both ’negative’ and ’positive’, and that many of these ’negative’ feelings are experienced to have a positive effect. The informants also spend time on Youtube because it is experienced as a safe ’place of their own’ and as a world free from adult norms and values. On Youtube children get to experience feelings and take part of information and perspectives that normally aren´t available to them on platforms specifically aimed at children. In the digital room Youtube, children’s content flow is defined by children´s needs and interests, not their age. Spending time on Youtube therefore gives children a possibility, if only for a short moment of time, to experience how it feels to not first and foremost be a child. Finally the study shows that Youtube is an important part of many children´s daily lives and a shared platform for discussion topics between peers. It is also a place that encourages both activity and creativity instead of only passive media consumption.