Networks, Society, and Polis: Epistemological Approaches on Mediatization

Generational analysis & mediatized social change 73 The generational experience is illustrated by the par- ticipants confirming each other’s memories and experiences, most explicitly in Tomas’s ‘yes, yes’ at the end. And although this is provoked by the interview situation, there is no doubt that the participants have experienced this, and recognise themselves as a generation in the confirmation by the other participants. If the above quote illustrates generation as a social formation, that is, the ‘we-sense produced in social interaction, generation is also formed in what could be called a ‘they-sense’ where one distinguishes oneself and one’s coevals from other generations. In our material from the interviews there are plen- ty of such examples, and even those who are quite young differ- entiates themselves from those who are even younger, as can be seen from the quote below. Our generation seems to have quite a lot of simi- larities in their media use. When you look at peo- ple who are 10–15 years younger, they are many times more superficial. It’s another world actually. (Focus group, born 1976–1980) However, it also works in the other direction, by dis- tancing oneself towards older generations: Arne : Well, it was the same with the TV. Many [old- er people] thought the TV signal came through the wall socket. Interviewer : Through the power-chord? Arne : [Laughing] Yes, through the power cord. They could not imagine that the pictures came through the air... (Focus group, born 1940–1945) The quote clearly shows how Arne is distancing him- self towards the older generations, whom he thinks were not up to date with the technological development. This part of the interview also consists of several such stories, where the focus group participants share stories about how ignorant their par- ents and other grown-ups were at the time of the introduction of television in Sweden in the mid-1950s.