Accelerated living environment - Children and adolescents growing up in the here and now How social media, online games and changes in the socialization field school influence mental development

Profound alterations in the course of the digital revolution and pervasion of mass media into the daily routine have led to an acceleration of the living environment, particularly for the younger generation. The entertainment media in particular have become a significant socialization entity, which have a greater influence on the development of children and adolescents than the analog media in the everyday life of earlier generations. Nevertheless, socialization, understood as the entirety of all learning processes mediated by society, is a highly complex procedure by which multifarious non-media factors also become important. These are primarily the experiences within the familial relationship, including those acquired (particularly emotionally anchored) elementary routine certainties, followed by values and standards mediated in schools as well as the social practices developed by peer groups, identification and action orientation. In considering the growing up of children and adolescents within a rapidly changing social and media environment from various perspectives, the authors make the hypothesis of increasingly more complex adaptative procedures plausible. Thereby, the negative effects of the excessive indulgence in digital games and the offer of preformed identification templates distributed by social media channels, i.e. the critically questioned figure of the "transgender" child, are taken into account just as the added value of a professionally accompanied inclusion schooling for disadvantaged children. In addition, the SINUS youth study, a research approach focussing on values and lifestyle, is presented and the advantage of a health communication targeted to specific groups is demonstrated.