Platformization and family digital practices in Argentina: a parental perspective

Abstract

This article explores parental digital practices in Argentina through the lens of platformization, based on data from an ad hoc online questionnaire administered to mothers and fathers of adolescents aged 10–17. Drawing on the conceptual triad of mediation, mediatization, and platformization, the study examines how digital technologies reshape family life and parental roles. Results show high smartphone penetration and identify WhatsApp as the main infrastructure for intra-family coordination and affective communication. Parents report a generational shift in practices and a gradual transformation of mediation strategies, which tend to become less restrictive and more dialogical as adolescents gain autonomy. The study maps patterns of divergence and convergence in device and platform use: WhatsApp and Instagram emerge as shared interaction spaces, whereas other platforms and activities remain generationally segmented. These findings support the notion that digital parenting involves enacting parenting within and through platforms, not only monitoring children’s online behaviour.  Situated within debates on surveillance capitalism and digital intimacy, the article discusses implications for autonomy, everyday support, and relational identity in platformized family life. It contributes to ongoing discussions about digital parenting by offering empirical evidence from a Global South perspective, emphasizing how technological infrastructures mediate not only communication but also affective and normative aspects of family relationships. Given the non-probabilistic sample—predominantly urban, highly educated, and largely composed of mothers—findings are exploratory, context-specific, and not generalizable. The article concludes by calling for research that includes adolescents’ voices and examines how families negotiate meaning, care, and control in platformized environments.