Icarus, Grannies, Black Holes and the death of privacy: exploring the use of digital networks for career enactment

ABSTRACT

New perspectives on how digital networks can be understood as an environment for career enactment are explored in this article, in particular, through using critical perspectives on technology, especially in the context of prevailing instrumental perspectives in the majority of the career development literature. Thus, the narratives of people using digital networks for their careers were explored using an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. The results are captured in three main themes or critical discourses: the speed and scale of digital environments, game-like features of social media interactions and a divide between offline and online worlds. These are presented as sites for critical investigation and are aligned with technological and socio-cultural critical theories.

KEYWORDS:

• Career development
• technology
• digital
• social media
• career guidance
• digital sociology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Tom Staunton is a lecturer in Career Development at the International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby, UK. His research interests focus on social media and career development, and social media as a pedagogical tool for careers practitioners. He has most recently written on the intersection of social media and social justice.