The SMIT research takes as a starting point that there is no immediately obvious connection between young people and new media, but that there are many such constructions of connections (or 'creations', as the title of the project suggests). It is thus necessary to question both the concept of 'youth' as well as the implied notion of an increasingly technology-savvy 'web generation'. In this and other terms, this group of consumers (users, readers, communicators) is defined in certain ways, by not necessarily through its own forms of consumption, use, etc. To uncover some of the underlying mechanisms of this creation - set in contrast with some actual uses and forms of consumption - was the aim of this project.

The emphasis on the younger generation is one of those projects within the network overall which is pinpointing particular current uses, but in relation to future uses. It is one of the projects in the 'Living and Working in the Information Society' block, i.e. the emphasis is on everyday life. Many of the more general issues raised in other centres (democracy, work, everyday life, etc.) are more concretely analysed in terms of the particularity of this user group.

Social factors shaping the participation in an Information Society are the focus of this project. It engages with both the details of meaning and value, but also with the structural determinants of action. The theoretical framework in the broadest sense derives ideas from youth research in general and youth and media research in particular. Technology user research delivers the methodological underpinning. It takes notions from sociology, technology studies and cultural studies into consideration. It also uses (and tries to open up) the concept of domestication of technologies, i.e. the theorisation of the complex processes of adoption of new technologies into everyday life. Ultimatively, it asks what the consequences of (non-)use and perception of ICTs for democracy and quality of life of the future generations might be.

The rather general research question was: "How do young adults engage with new media and ICTs?". This means more concretely that we asked what young adults do with media & ICTs and to what extent, but also why they do what they do and how they perceive current and future changes. This set of questions was combined with the question "How is this engagement linked to consumption?". More detailed research questions concern the specificities of the technologies in relation to the particularities of the user group. These were developed by the students who conducted the interviews.

The methodology is roughly two-fold. It firstly included a broad literature research part, i.e. desk research that monitored and analysed the socio-technological trends in relation to the topics youth, new media and consumption. Secondly, the project performed a qualitative study of individual young adult users (and different kinds of uses), based on in-depth interviews. This empirical research was introduced by the researcher, but was subsequently carried out by students from the VUB. These were third year communication science students who have had to do practical research for a course (called 'Werkcollege'). This particular 'Werkcollege' was dealing with young people and new media. It was coupled with an introductory course on qualitative methodology in which in-depth interviewing was taught.

Two particularities of this study were a) the high amount of qualitative data produced (around 650 semi-structured interviews) and b) the use of young adults themselves to actually carry out parts of the research. Both led to a need for selection of the material to be analysed in detail.

At this moment in time, the Key Deliverable for EMTEL is being prepared. Further analysis of the material plus more publications are hoped for in the future.