Children’s socialization, mediatization and neoliberalism: contemporary discussions

Abstract

In this article, the processes of children’s socialization are discussed, which are marked by the presence of neoliberal rationality and the digitalization of the different spheres of human existence. It is inferred, from a systemic analysis, that digital technologies, when transversalized by neoliberal rationality, can be understood as strategies that are part of a neoliberal anthropological-pedagogical project, which aims to form a neo-subject. Therefore, even recognizing that children perform an interpretative reproduction of cultural artifacts, we identified that, through the exacerbated exploitation of these devices, a normativity that advocates personal satisfaction as a regal decision-making criterion, hypertrophy of social relations and the atomization of the individual are welcomed. Finally, the anthropological and sociological implications of the formation of the neo-subject since childhood are discussed, bearing in mind that their psychic constitution and widespread norms inhibit social cohesion and the subject’s participation in public debates.