YOUTH 2020 - The position of young people in Slovenia

326 isation thesis, Markolis and Resnick (2000) soon began to emphasise that the internet reflected and reinforced patterns of behaviour in the offline world. Hopes for a new socioeconomic order were balked as ordinary po- litical and economic activity that took over cyberspace (ibid.: 2). An ad- vanced political economy designed and run by online technology experts has replaced amateur and hobby users and dominated the realm of politi- cal, social, and economic life, including spending free time online (ibid.: 4). This is nicely summed up in a statement from one of the interviewees. “I use the internet for everything: school, communication, entertainment, and music.” (Benjamin, 17 years old, young musician) We have entered the age of the internet galaxy, in which the binary view – the separation of digital and analogue – of current social processes is outdated and reductionist, as it does not cover the full intertwining of physical and online activities or the emergence of individuals, state, eco- nomic actors, and other relevant social stakeholders that make up a highly networked society (Navarria, 2019: 34). It is crucial to connect in- dividual network points to a networked society, which is done by simul- taneously navigating (namely, activating or deactivating) virtual (in the web) or physical connection points. In doing so, two elements are very important; who is doing the connecting (the actor) and whether they have the appropriate resources to do so. People who connect to a networked society in everyday life through digi- tal communication, combined with the general social, political, and eco- nomic relevance of the social networks and corporations of which they are a part, become a new type of citizen – a networked citizen. Therefore, people’s roles in society in relation to both the state and other stakehold- ers are being redefined. By nature, these networked citizens aremuch less involved in member organizations. They participate more in horizontal and non-hierarchical networks, are more project or problem-oriented, seek opportunities for self-realization, even in the form of reflective iden- tity policy and reject traditional forms of involvement based on duties (Loader et al., 2014). Likewise, especially for current generations of young