Teenagers’ Power Balance at Home with Regard to ICTS as a Social Problem: The New Power Types and Activism Amplification

During the past decade, the intensification in the trend of domestication of ICTS, as a newborn social problem, in Iranian families has created a new experience and perception of everyday family life in the aspects of assignments and rights, imagination and expectation of roles, surveillance, as well as the parent-child relations. One of the most significant achievements of this problem has been the amplification of the activism potency and the potential dormant abilities of adolescent children as a result of adopting technological gadgets as a booster. The authors have investigated the analysis of the mentioned factors by conducting a field research in Tehran (regions 3, 6 & 11). For this purpose, the multi-dimensional theoretical and analytic approach was adopted concerning the relationship between technology and elements such as power, consumption, individualism, socialization, as well as language. The theoretical framework was inspired by the Structuration paradigm generated by Anthony Giddens. Furthermore, applying the semi-structural interview technique, 120 cases of 13-17 year-old adolescents were interviewed according to the theoretical and purposive sampling strategy. In order to achieve the reality reconstruction, the interviews were analyzed in a process consisting of multi-step ordering, coding, pattern revealing, and typology. Despite some vulnerabilities, the results show that 16 types of power for children are discoverable which one can classify into two major categories of acquisitive and transmitted power. Primarily, these types of power are of the dependent, conditional, temporary, potential, illegitimate, instant, exhibitive, and short-rang essence, and they should be considered in the power-dependency network and the need for parents.