Adolescents and the New Culture of Risk On-line: a Conceptual Framework for an Ethical Training Pragmatics

Traditionally, adolescence has always been associated with a culture of risk. Nowadays, the Internet has radically changed the contexts, opportunities, and ways of expressing risk. In literature we find many studies discussing the assumption of risky behaviors on social media from a cognitive-behavioral point of view, but we lack a suitable conceptual framework to analyze it. In addition, a philosophical reading is also important in order to design an ethical training pragmatics. This analysis is complex, as risk is ambivalent and always refers back to uncertainty. Furthermore, as Verbeek argues, digital platforms are not simple tools, but have become means through which the subjective perceptive experience is created and mediated, with important ethical implications. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to investigate the expressions and meanings of risk exhibited online and how social media responds to the relationship between risk and uncertainty. The final objective is to understand how social media changes the perspective we take on moral responsibility and its impact in relation to new generations. Not only do we need to question whether social networking technologies are inherently moral or immoral because of the political significance we attach to them, but we also need to reconsider how we understand and define our own moral sensibilities. Technologies mediate not only our perceptions, but also our praxis, introducing a novel set of considerations to the question of morality that animates the study of technology and its effect on our lives. We are at a turning point if we want to continue “being human in an Hyperconnected era”.