How does the web make youth feel? Exploring the positive digital native rhetoric

Limited research has examined consumer emotional responses to digital media. In this article, we explore the emotional responses to the web of the Digital Native, who express in their own words how the web makes them feel and why. Content analysis and response classification reveals a hierarchical model of emotional responses to the web expressed by the Digital Native. Our findings suggest that a youth and web application context influence the hierarchical framework of consumer web emotions. Within a youth cohort born between 1990 and 1996, differences in how the web makes youth feel is identified across age groups, contesting the popular positive Digital Native rhetoric often used to justify market segmentation and digital government policy targeted at youth markets.