From Infoxication to Action: Digital Rights, Democracy and the Role of Youth Work

11/09/2025
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by Asociación Youropía
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Abstract

Today’s youth grow up in an environment marked by information overload, disinformation, and algorithms that shape how the world is perceived. This digital ecosystem, far from neutral, influences identity formation, mental health, and the real possibilities for social and political participation. This article, framed within the project “Youth Participation in Digital Democracy: From Digital Skills to Digital Rights of Youth with Fewer Opportunities (EYDR)”, reflects on the main challenges of the digital age: information overload, hate speech, doomscrolling, and the erosion of critical agency.

From a perspective rooted in youth work, it explores key concepts such as digital rights, digital participation, and digital democracy, underlining both their potential and contradictions. It also highlights how structural inequalities disproportionately affect young people with fewer opportunities, reinforcing the need for inclusive approaches.

Finally, it reclaims the transformative role of youth work as an educational and human space capable of offering what digital platforms cannot: trust, guidance, and a sense of community.

We live in an era where information flows at breakneck speed. Every second, our screens fill with headlines, videos, notifications, and opinions competing for our attention. Far from offering clarity, this constant flow often generates confusion, exhaustion, and paralysis. For many young people —especially those in more vulnerable situations— this overload is not an opportunity but a storm that is difficult to navigate.

This article reflects on this context from a critical yet proactive perspective, framed within the project “Youth Participation in Digital Democracy: From Digital Skills to Digital Rights of Youth with Fewer Opportunities (EYDR)”, and grounded in the practice of youth work. Its aim is to provide insights that help us understand today’s digital landscape —with its challenges and contradictions— and to point out possible ways forward so that youth work becomes a key actor in defending digital rights, promoting digital democracy, and fostering genuine and transformative youth participation.

The information storm: algorithms, the aesthetics of cynicism, and doomscrolling

In 1996, Alfons Cornella coined the term infoxication to describe the intoxication caused by too much information. Almost three decades later, this idea has become more real than ever: we are not only overinformed but also overstimulated, thanks to platforms designed not to enrich our understanding but to keep us online for as long as possible.

Algorithms personalize content until it becomes predictable, preventing us from encountering different perspectives. This reinforces what Eli Pariser called “filter bubbles”: digital environments where only our pre-existing beliefs are reinforced. For example, a young person who consumes content about a political party or conspiracy theories will increasingly receive similar material, reinforcing a biased worldview and reducing exposure to other perspectives.

In this environment, what we might call the aesthetics of cynicism flourishes. In many digital spaces, sarcasm, cruelty, or ridicule generate more interaction than empathy. This results in narratives that reward confrontation and ethical indifference. For young people searching for role models, this atmosphere can be toxic, fostering attitudes of disdain towards collective responsibility or towards those who think differently.

Added to this is the phenomenon of doomscrolling: the almost compulsive consumption of negative news, climate crises, wars, or political scandals. Such constant exposure does not usually generate more commitment but rather paralysis and emotional exhaustion. The amount of time spent is not minor: the Spanish Youth Institute (INJUVE, 2023) reports that young people spend on average 3 hours per day on social networks, while UNICEF (2021) found that Spanish adolescents aged 11–18 spend nearly 7 hours a day connected to screens, about 3 of which are on social media. Sustained daily, this level of exposure inevitably impacts how they perceive and engage with the world.

Digital rights: a compass in the fog

Against this backdrop, it is essential to reclaim digital rights as an ethical, legal, and educational framework. These are not optional add-ons but the foundation of a fair, inclusive, and critical digital citizenship.

The right to truthful and accessible information is compromised in an environment where disinformation is not accidental but a business model. Hate speech, for example, multiplies not because it is inevitable but because it is effective: it generates more clicks, comments, and time spent on platforms, thus feeding the attention economy. Hatred becomes profitable, even while degrading coexistence.

The right to privacy is also challenged by the logic of oversharing —the widespread tendency to share personal experiences, emotions, or images. Among adolescents and young people, this intersects with identity-building processes and carries clear risks: hypersexualization, objectification of bodies, and the diffusion of unrealistic models of beauty and success. Lives and bodies become commodities, instrumentalized by neoliberal logics that place economic value above social commitment or personal well- being.

On top of this, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) poses new dilemmas. Algorithms deciding what we see, programs analyzing our emotions through cameras, AI systems generating hyper-realistic images —all raise issues of privacy, safety, and control. AI can be a powerful educational tool but also a threat if not regulated and critically addressed. Thus, digital rights are not abstract declarations but a compass to navigate the informational fog, ensuring that young people not only inhabit digital spaces but do so safely, with dignity and meaning.

Young people with fewer opportunities: who is left out?

Social, economic, educational, or cultural inequalities do not disappear in digital spaces; they often deepen. The digital divide is no longer just about access to the internet but about having the right devices, critical skills, and supportive environments.

For young people with fewer opportunities, these barriers are stark: unstable connections in rural areas, shared computers among several siblings, lack of training to distinguish reliable news from fake content, platforms inaccessible for young people with disabilities, or language barriers for those with a different mother tongue. On top of this, LGTBIQ+, racialized, or activist youth are at higher risk of online harassment, which limits their freedom of expression.

Defending digital rights, therefore, requires recognizing that not everyone starts from the same place. Any strategy that ignores these inequalities risks reinforcing them instead of reducing them.

Digital participation: between clicks and commitment

Digital participation is often celebrated as a historic opportunity. Never before has it been so easy to express an opinion, sign a petition, or join a campaign from a mobile phone. These channels democratize access and allow many young voices to be heard without physically entering political spaces.

Yet this accessibility has a downside. Much of this participation is superficial: likes, clicks, and comments that are mistaken for political involvement but rarely translate into sustained action or social impact. This “superficial participation” creates the illusion of influence but can become an obstacle if it replaces deeper engagement.

This does not mean that digital participation lacks value. It can be an entry point into broader causes or a platform for marginalized issues. But it is important to recognize its limits. What makes participation more accessible also makes it more fragile and less transformative.

There are also economic and social costs. Platforms benefit from youth engagement without necessarily returning anything in terms of empowerment. Young people participate, but their data and attention feed a business model that prioritizes profitability over social impact.

Digital democracy: promises and paradoxes

The rise of digital democracy —online consultations, participatory budgets, voting apps— has been presented as progress toward more direct and accessible citizenship. However, results are often limited. Many of these initiatives attract the same profiles already engaged offline, leaving out those most in need of inclusion.

One of the greatest dilemmas is trust. If a young person takes part in an online process but never receives feedback on the results, the experience turns into frustration. Added to this is uncertainty about digital security: fear that supposed anonymity is not real, or concern that digital footprints cannot be erased and might be used against them in the future. In a context where privacy is increasingly vulnerable, trust in digital participation becomes fragile.

The risk is that digital democracy becomes an empty technological showcase, focused on the tool rather than the process. Opening a platform is not enough; it must be accompanied by education, mediation, and transparency. Otherwise, the gap between youth and institutions widens, reinforcing the perception that “participation doesn’t change anything.”

The transformative role of youth work

Amidst this panorama, youth work in all its forms (non-formal education, community work, youth information services, training, outreach) plays a fundamental role. Not only as a transmitter of information but as a facilitator of meaning, citizenship, and empowerment.

Youth work can offer what digital platforms cannot: human closeness both in person and online, times and spaces tailored to young people’s rhythms, value-based education beyond market logics, and guidance rooted in trust. These elements are essential to counter the logic of immediacy, consumption, and superficiality that dominates the digital environment.

Building on this, youth work can foster media and digital literacy, encourage the co-creation of content with and for young people, open spaces for dialogue beyond algorithmic logics, and bridge the gap toward more inclusive and transformative forms of participation. The challenge is not to compete with social media but to offer a different horizon: processes where what matters is not the click but the shared learning and the building of community.

Conclusion: from data to rights, from clicks to change

Digitalization has transformed the way we know, communicate, and participate. But it has also brought new inequalities, ethical dilemmas, and threats to youth rights. In this context, it is not enough to simply teach how to use technology: we must defend a digital ecosystem that is fairer, more inclusive, and more humane.

Digital rights are not optional: they are the condition for full citizenship. Digital democracy is not just an interface: it is a commitment. And youth participation cannot be reduced to clicks without consequences.

Youth work has a unique opportunity to act as a beacon in the digital storm. Not only to combat disinformation but to sow meaning, agency, and community in an environment that often pushes in the opposite direction.

References

DISCLAIMER: This article is part of Youth Participation in Digital Democracy: From Digital Skills to Digital Rights of Youth with Fewer Opportunities (EYDR) project, aimed to strengthen the capacities of Albanian and Montenegrin youth to meaningfully engage in digital activism through an approach that balances protection and digital participation.
EYDR is funded by the Erasmus Capacity Building in the Field of Youth of the European Union and is implemented under the leadership of SCiDEV in partnership with UZOR,  Beogradski centar za ljudska prava,   Asociación Youropia , Centre for Comparative International Studies, Erasmus Student Network in Albania, National Youth Agency in Albania, and SHARE Foundation. Opinions in this article are solely of the author and do not necessarily represent the views European Union stand on the matter.

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