On Young People’s Experience of Systems in Technology

Immersed in a technologically complex world, young people make sense of a multi-faceted set of events in everyday life. This article investigates the variation in how Swedish young people experience technological systems and is based on interviews focusing three systems concerning transport, energy and communication – contextualised in relation to bananas, electricity, and mobile phones. A phenomenographic analysis results in five qualitatively distinct categories, describing different ways of understanding technological systems: Using single components, Using the system output, Influencing the system, Interacting with the system, and Integrating thesystem. The results support that different ways of understanding technological systems implies different ways of understanding the complex nature of technology. The results also point to possible ways of developing teaching for technological citizenship