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“Google is not fun”: an investigation of how Swedish teenagers frame online searching

Cecilia Andersson (Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Lund University, Lund, Sweden)

Journal of Documentation

ISSN: 0022-0418

Article publication date: 4 October 2017

Issue publication date: 12 October 2017

2538

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of Google in everyday online searching activities of Swedish teenagers in different contexts.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is qualitative and material has been produced through interviews and observations in two different schools with participants aged 15-16. Goffman’s frame analysis provides the analytical lens for studying how activities are assigned meaning.

Findings

Three different framings in relation to using Google and googling are identified in the material: Google and fact-finding, Google as a neutral infrastructure, and Google as an authority. There is an interplay between activity, context, and interaction in defining the role of Google. In relation to school, the fact-finding framing is more pronounced whereas the infrastructure framing comes forth more in their free time activities. The authority framing cuts across both framings and underpins their trust in the search engine.

Originality/value

The study addresses the way that Google is embedded in online activities and how the search engine is viewed in various contexts, as well as how it is made invisible in some contexts. Previous research has not addressed Google’s role in specific in relation to various everyday uses.

Keywords

Citation

Andersson, C. (2017), "“Google is not fun”: an investigation of how Swedish teenagers frame online searching", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 73 No. 6, pp. 1244-1260. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2017-0048

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2017, Emerald Publishing Limited

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