Patrícia Dias

• PhD in Communication Sciences
• Universidade Católica Portuguesa

This chapter analyses coaches of digital minimalism, by looking at two Portuguese cases: Cláudia Ganhão and Ana Milhazes. We considered their authored books, courses, media and social media material, and interview. These coaches of digital minimalism are part of a disconnection industry primarily influenced by self-help ideologies and only marginal...

The COVID-19 lockdown saw an increased reliance on digital technology for children, which might have called for changes in parental mediation practices. The present study aimed at analyzing the extent to which such changes took place, their predictors, and their differences across countries. Data were collected from 2,412 parents and 2,412 children...

As most individuals become digital media users, many struggle to find balance in such use. This study adds to emergent research on how digital disconnection experiences reflect on well-being (Nguyen et al., 2021; Radtke et al., 2022; Vanden Abeele, 2021) by focusing on motivations and strategies to disconnect from digital media, as well as on outco...

The Covid-19 pandemic was addressed, in most European countries, with a mandatory lockdown period, during which the use of digital technologies was intensified, for remote working, communication, entertainment, consumption and learning. Our research aims to map the digital practices of Portuguese children (6-18) during lockdown (between March 19th...

The world has been facing the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic for over two years now. Daily life changed dramatically, and social distancing and remote working have become the new normal. Research about how people are facing these challenges points to common findings and concerns. The pandemic has enhanced inequalities, taken a toll on mental heal...

Young people struggle with permanent online connection that is associated with their generation. This article looks at teenagers’ affective relationship to connectivity and disconnectivity, and how it is socioculturally influenced by the media, family, and peers. It reports on an interview study with 36 teenagers between 15 and 19 years of age from...

The Portuguese Ministry of Education developed a collection of three stories for supporting kindergarten teachers in exploring the theme of online safety with preschoolers. These stories were created in book and digital animation formats. The authors took these three stories to three kindergartens to test their efficacy in scaffolding learning and...

Parents play an important role as mediators between digital media and young children, acting role models and by actively mediating digital practices [Findahl (Swedes and the Internet 2013. The Internet Infrastructure Foundation, 2013); Plowman (Interacting with Computers 27:36–46, 2015); Palaiologou (The European Early Childhood Research Journal 24...

The Portuguese Ministry of Education developed a collection of three stories for supporting kindergarten teachers in exploring the theme of online safety with preschoolers. These stories were created in book and digital animation formats. The authors took these three stories to three kindergartens to test their efficacy in scaffolding learning and...

This article explores the (dis)comforts of reading in print vs. digital formats. We ran a qualitative study with 36 student respondents across six countries and found that reading can be uncomfortable, but that physical discomfort is sometimes the reader’s preferred choice. Based on our data we discuss how the reading device, type of text and purpo...

In our digital society, digital media are fully integrated in most homes, and children start using them very early. Their favorites are mobile devices: they usually start by experimenting with the parents’ smartphones, and several children under 8 years old have their own tablets. Parents are facing the challenge of mediating digital media very ear...

This paper discusses findings from online surveys completed by parents of 0–3-year-old children in Norway, Portugal and Japan concerning their young children’s use of touchscreen technology. The study investigated parental practices, views and perspectives related to children’s digital practices and explored these in relation to wider cultural disc...

p>In the last two decades, contemporary society has been conceptualized and discussed around the assumption that digital technologies are its most defining feature. Jean Baudrillard’s take on the Fable of Borges suggests a replacement of the physical world by a virtual experiencing life, setting the tone for a pessimistic and somewhat fearful attit...

Necesidades múltiples para pantallas múltiples: prácticas, motivaciones y distribución de atención Necessidades múltiplas para telas múltiplas: práticas, motivações e distribuição de atenção Multi-screening is an emergent but fast-growing and fast-changing practice, evolving along with the technologies that mediate it. This article presents a study...

Parents are the main mediators of the digital exposure and experiences of young children. When adopting a parental mediation style, they are challenged by a dilemma: protecting their children often means invading their privacy and restricting their options. The adopted parental mediation style is pondered according to the perceptions and experience...

This chapter discusses how smart toys are being adopted in homes with young children (under 10), using domestication theory (Silverstone and Hirsch in Consuming Technologies: Media and information in domestic spaces. Routledge, London, 1992) as the framework. We report on a qualitative exploratory study aiming to understand the different domesticat...

O projeto hAPPy kids surge da sinergia entre as áreas da Educação e Comunicação. A ideia surgiu de estudos realizados anteriormente por nós, autoras de outros trabalhos na mesma área (Brito, 2017; Dias & Brito, 2016, 2017), partindo da premissa que a sociedade em que vivemos está profunda-mente marcada pela integração das tecnologias digitais no no...

In this chapter, we present a longitudinal study which aims to explore the involvement of children up to 8 years old and their families with digital technologies, focusing perceptions and use, during a one-year period. In a first phase, ten families with children up to 8 years old were interviewed. In a second phase, we interviewed eight of the ini...

The growing use of “smart” toys has made it increasingly important to understand the various privacy implications of their use by children and families. The article is a case study of how the risks to young children’s privacy, posed by the commercial data collection of producers of “smart” toys, were represented in the media. Relying on a content a...

With this chapter, the authors aim to present a theoretical review about the use of digital technologies in kindergartens, with preschool children. They begin by taking a theoretical and generalized approach to the subject. Next, they present the added value for children when using technologies. The importance of the kindergarten teacher in the use...

This chapter discusses ways of rethinking and reconfiguring advertising models and tools, in order to explore all the potential of mobile devices. The chapter presents a literature review on perceptions and opportunities related to mobile devices and advertising, focusing themes such as branded content, branded apps, advergames, second screening an...

One of the effects of the development and widespread diffusion of digital technologies is that in contemporary homes children are being exposed to those technologies since birth. The present study aims to identify the general ‘climate of concern’ and to map specific worries that parents have with respect to their young children’s digital lives. The...

The aim of this report is therefore twofold. First, we aim to provide a critical introduction to the Internet of Toys, by setting its conceptual boundaries and discussing the theoretical, methodological and policy challenges it raises. Second, we aim to report on the findings of a small comparative project we have carried out as part of the activit...

IzvlečekNamen: Namen prispevka je obravnavati branje kot fizično dejavnost, ki je vpisana v prostor in nosi številne sociološke konotacije. Branje analizira kot utelešeno (angl. embodied) in družbeno prakso in ugotavlja medsebojno sodoločenost teh dveh dimenzij.Metodologija/pristop: V fokusnih skupinah smo izvedli pogovore s študenti iz šestih evro...

Na sociedade em que vivemos, a sociedade da informação, as crianças vivem em lares tecnológicos e estão expostas a dispositivos digitais quase desde que nascem. Esses “digitods” (Holloway, Green, Stevenson, 2015) são os filhos dos pri- meiros “nativos digitais” (Prensky, 2001) e estão a ser educados por pais utilizadores de tecnologias. A “digitali...

It only takes witnessing a few interactions within modern western families to realize how much the experience of childhood has changed. The use of digital technologies peaks out and its impacts on childhood, education, learning and safety has been at question over the last years. Since a very early age, video watching and gaming on a variety of int...

Contemporary homes are filled with digital technologies, and children are exposed to them almost since birth, initiating their first digital experiences at very early ages (Chaudron et al., 2015, Young children (0–8)). This trend is expected to become stronger, as our future has been envisioned around the concept of the IoT (Internet of Things), an...

In the last few years, advertising narratives have become increasingly important. Facing an environment of fierce competition and communication overload, brands needed to reinvent their communication strategies, and stories became protagonists, particularly in the digital environment. This article addresses a new way of applying storytelling in ma...

The aim of this report is therefore twofold. First, we aim to provide a critical introduction to the Internet of Toys, by setting its conceptual boundaries and discussing the theoretical, methodological and policy challenges it raises. Second, we aim to report on the findings of a small comparative project we have carried out as part of the activit...

This paper presents a study on the use of the smartphone while watching TV by a sample of 30 university students from Portugal and Spain in order to explore triggers, motivations, gratifications and attention distribution. The paper shows that the activities performed on each device are usually disconnected and motivated by the need to enhance the...

This chapter discusses ways of rethinking and reconfiguring advertising models and tools, in order to explore all the potential of mobile devices. The chapter presents a literature review on perceptions and opportunities related to mobile devices and advertising, focusing themes such as branded content, branded apps, advergames, second screening an...

The growing use of “smart” toys has made it increasingly important to understand the various privacy implications of their use by children and families. The article is a case study of how the risks to young children’s privacy, posed by the commercial data collection of producers of “smart” toys, were represented in the media. Relying on a content a...

This chapter discusses ways of rethinking and reconfiguring advertising models and tools, in order to explore all the potential of mobile devices. The chapter presents a literature review on perceptions and opportunities related to mobile devices and advertising, focusing themes such as branded content, branded apps, advergames, second screening an...

In contemporary society, Internet services and phones are blending into a mobile device frequently called smartphone. As a consequence, mobile Internet is having an exponential growth and new practices of mobile social networking and mobile communication are emerging, as these devices make it easier to maintain networks of relationships. Resulting...

This chapter presents an overview of the digital practices of young children (under 8 years old) in the home. At such an early age, parents are the main mediators of the contact with digital media, thus paying a preponderant role in shaping young children's practices, perceptions and attitudes. In this chapter, we present partial results of a Europ...

In contemporary society, digital media are fully integrated in our daily lives, indispensable for our routines, always connected and at-hand. Our research thus explores the parental mediation of portable digital devices in fami- lies with young children, addressing the following ques- tions: (a) which are the most common parental mediation styles a...

Nas últimas décadas, o papel das crianças nas investigações qualitativas tem-se alterado, passando de sujeitos desconhecidos e incapazes, para sujeitos atentos e participantes ativos. Mas para a sua participação ser adequada e ética, é conveniente adotar alguns métodos. Assim, pretende-se com este artigo fazer uma revisão crítica relativa à partici...

Reading, even when silent and individual, is a social phenomenon and has often been studied as such. Complementary to this view, research has begun to explore how reading is embodied beyond simply being ‘wired’ in the brain. This article brings the social and embodied perspectives together in a very literal sense. Reporting a qualitative study of r...

Muito recentemente, mais especificamente no mês de abril de 2017, a SeguraNet, organismo pertencente à DGE - Direção-Geral da Educação/ERTE - Equipa de Recursos e Tecnologias Educativas - disponibilizou uma coleção de três livros infantis “O Pisca faz Faísca”, destinado a crianças em Educação Pré-Escolar. Segundo o website da SeguraNet, esta coleçã...

This chapter presents an overview of the digital practices of young children (under 8 years old) in the home. At such an early age, parents are the main mediators of the contact with digital media, thus paying a preponderant role in shaping the young children's practices, perceptions and attitudes. In this chapter, we present partial results of a E...

This chapter presents an overview of the digital practices of young children (under 8 years old) in the home. At such an early age, parents are the main mediators of the contact with digital media, thus paying a preponderant role in shaping young children's practices, perceptions and attitudes. In this chapter, we present partial results of a Europ...

Resumen: Este artículo analiza las prácticas y percepciones de niños menores de 8 años y sus familias sobre el uso de las tecnologías digitales en las escuelas y su potencial para el aprendizaje. El estudio empírico compara dos grupos de edad ‐ niños de 3 a 5 años (educación infantil), y niños de 6 a 8 años (educación primaria). Los datos fueron re...

This study investigates the role played by parents as mediators of young children’s access and engagement with digital technologies. In Belgium, Germany, Latvia and Portugal, qualitative in-depth interviews were conducted with 10 families in each country, including one child between 6 and 7 years old. Our findings show that parents of young childre...

In contemporary society, the media landscape is complex and dynamic. Smartphones and tablets are proliferating, while the TV set is being passed over by other devices as the channel for TV content. These changes have implications on user behaviour, business models, technological platforms and content development. This article explores multi-screeni...

La proliferación de las tecnologías digitales, junto con el aumento de las tasas de adopción de internet y dispositivos móviles, están reconfigurando el panorama mediático contemporáneo y fomentando nuevas prácticas de uso. La televisión está pasando por un proceso de remediación o hibridación, ya que el contenido se está convirtiendo en transmedia...

Mobile phones’ sales are decreasing worldwide but smartphones sales show an exponential growth. This device results from the convergence between internet and mobile phones which support new uses other than voice communication. All these transformations have social consequences. Our chapter deals with emerging adoption patterns of mobile internet us...

This chapter discusses the new social configurations society is undergoing on the basis of media emergence. Media are embedded in the arousal of communication and information transmission becoming the form, the infrastructure and the institution for the social and culture. This chapter focuses on mobile communication, having as central goal to deba...

Any technology adoption is shaped by a myriad of factors that sometimes conflict in their ultimate goals and outcomes. So is the case with mobile Internet (m-Internet) adoption and diffusion. This paper discusses this process from the stakeholders’ and users’ perspectives and confronts their understanding and attitudes towards this technology with...

Nowadays Internet and mobile phones are blending into portable devices such as smartphones. At the same time that mobile phones' sales are decreasing worldwide, smartphones, and consequently mobile internet (m-internet), are having an exponential growth. M-internet contributes to the emerging of new practices of mobile social networking and mobile...

In contemporary society, Internet services and phones are blending into a mobile device frequently called smartphone. As a consequence, mobile Internet is having an exponential growth and new practices of mobile social networking and mobile communication are emerging, as these devices make it easier to maintain networks of relationships. Resulting...

This paper focuses on the current status of the Internet as the research object of Internet Studies, and addresses the multiplicity and variety of terminology, scientific assumptions, perspectives and approaches that currently characterize this scientific field. This multiplicity and variety is undoubtedly a valuable asset, but it can also be an ob...