Development of infants’ media habits in the age of digital parenting: A longitudinal study of Jonathan, from the age of 6 to 27 months

The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 marked the birth of the digitods – a new generation of children born with ready access to the digital devices. Little is known, however, about the development of infants’ and toddlers’ digital habits and how the parents and the family environment in general affect this process. The present study makes an initial attempt to fill this gap by using a combination of ethnographic methods in the case study of one child (Jonathan) from 6 to 27 months of age. During the fieldwork, we sought to examine how Jonathan’s media uses are shaped and changed over a two-year period and to identify the different family and parent-related factors determining this process. The study’s findings support the claim that use of digital media has become a normative behaviour among very young children and emphasize how deeply it is integrated into the daily parenting practices.