Youth in the Digital and AI Era: Connection, Participation, and the Future of Work

Question the algorithms shaping the next generation

Algorithms recommend what we watch. Platforms shape how we connect. AI increasingly influences what we see, share, believe, and even imagine for our futures.

But what does growing up in an AI-driven world actually mean?

On this online course, you’ll examine how digital technologies and artificial intelligence are reshaping youth experiences, social connections, and everyday life.

Across three weeks, you’ll investigate how AI and digital society are transforming the ways people connect, participate, and prepare for the future.

Unpack life in the digital age

Begin by exploring what it means to grow up surrounded by platforms, data, and connected technologies.

You’ll examine how online communities, algorithms, and digital technologies shape social connections, wellbeing, and belonging, while reflecting on how online and offline experiences increasingly overlap.

Investigate participation, identity, and digital inclusion

Digital spaces create opportunities, but they can also introduce new challenges.

Attention then turns to youth participation, online visibility, and the ways platforms influence who gets heard, included, or excluded.

You’ll engage with ideas around digital inequalities, support networks, and experiences of marginalisation in an increasingly connected world.

Navigate the future of AI and youth

AI is changing more than technology - it’s changing expectations around education, work, and opportunity.

You’ll examine how automation and AI are reshaping future careers, emerging skills, and social systems, alongside the ethical questions these changes raise.

By connecting ethical AI with youth experiences, the course encourages a more thoughtful understanding of how young people might shape - and be shaped by - the future of digital society.

Designed for undergraduate learners, this course is suitable for anyone interested in AI, youth experiences, and digital society. It’s ideal for those curious about how technology influences identity, participation, wellbeing, and the future.

Designed for undergraduate learners, this course is suitable for anyone interested in AI, youth experiences, and digital society. It’s ideal for those curious about how technology influences identity, participation, wellbeing, and the future.

• Evaluate youth policy approaches in relation to digital and AI-driven transformations
• Explore and apply research evidence, theoretical frameworks, and conceptual tools to support independent learning and critical reflection on the social impacts of digital technologies and AI
• Compare similarities and differences in how youth, policy, and digital governance are conceptualised and organised across cultural and national settings
• Identify how local and global technologies, including artificial intelligence, platforms, and data-driven systems, shape young people’s experiences, wellbeing, and social and political participation in contemporary digital societies