Contexts and dimensions of algorithm literacies: Parents’ algorithm literacies amidst the datafication of parenthood

ABSTRACT

In this paper, I present contextualizing factors, dimensions, and key markers of algorithm literacies, paying attention to the context of parenting and parenthood amidst datafication. Analyzing data from “think-aloud” interviews with 30 parents of children aged between 0 and 18, across England, I draw upon media and digital literacies scholarship to focus, first, in this paper, on the competencies, conversations, and events which contextualize parents’ literacies with algorithmic interfaces. Next, I draw out four dimensions of parents’ algorithm literacies including algorithm awareness, technical competencies, critical capacities, and championing their and their children’s best interests, identifying practical markers for each dimension. I reflect on the broader implications of these for parenting and parenthood in datafied societies, and note that algorithm literacies are, forever, a work in progress, in fluidity and flux across the diverse courses of parenting journeys, deeply contextualized in the resources and restraints that parents encounter in their daily lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Algorithms
• digital literacy
• parenting
• parents
• platforms

Acknowledgments

I am grateful to the sabbatical scheme of the University of Surrey which allowed me the time to do this work. This paper was presented, as a draft, to colleagues at the University of Bergen, to whom I am grateful for their detailed comments, with particular thanks to Brita Ytre-Arne for hosting me. I am grateful to have been supported by the Erasmus mobility scheme which enabled my visit to Bergen. I am also grateful to colleagues including Sonia Livingstone, Usha Raman, Veronica Barassi and Giovanna Mascheroni at the Datafied Family event in June 2023 for their valuable feedback on the draft of this paper presented at the event. My thanks also to those colleagues who have informally read drafts of the broader project this is part of, including Tereza Pavlickova, Ana Jorge, Francisca Porfirio, and Ana Kubrusly.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

¹ I am grateful to conversations with colleagues at the Datafied Family event, in June 2023, who drew attention to the practical advantages of not splitting media and digital literacy education into too many different literacies, but recognized also the importance of considering algorithm literacies and the specific demands presented by algorithms. To colleagues at the event, I also owe gratitude for encouraging me to think of algorithm literacies as nested within other literacies.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the University of Surrey.