Digital Generations: A Multidimensional Analysis of Media Ecology

The digital era in which we live hosts at least four generations according to the mainstream social generational classification that has been adopted worldwide. This classification allows us to recognize ourselves as members of a particular generation corresponding to a span of time. However, the milestones and shared historical events that glue a generation together are sometimes blurry and even inadequate to portray other societies as different from the hegemonic ones. This study builds on the media ecosystems approach. The approach resembles the natural flows of energy and nutrients that characterize ecological systems by arguing that media ecosystems are also characterized by “flows of attention”. These flows of attention vary throughout time, from attention controlled by mainstream media enterprises during the reign of mass media communications to discovery engines in the digital era. Media ecosystems are a complementary aspect of “media ecology,” a critical perspective that builds upon Marshall McLuhan's “tetrad”, which describes what a technology: (a) obsolesce, (b) retrieve, (c) enhance, and (d) reverse into. In this study, we build on the media ecology perspective to devise a research strategy to determine and map the boundaries of digital generations in Ecuador, based on the elements and characteristics related to their media produsage. We are aware that it has been claimed that the digital supersedes national imaginaries, in which generations are originally ascribed. We question to which extent generations can be struck out in societies such as the Ecuadorian one, where alternative and creative visions of connectivity work side by side.