From the Physical to the Digital Playground: Child Folklore in the COVID Era

In the fall of 2019, the places of childhood in North America became increasingly prohibited to the very populations they served. In response, children migrated more purposely to the digital playground. In this dissertation, I argue that children’s social interactions and cultural production have changed in appearance and organization within the virtual space but remain fundamentally rooted in the same folkloric traditions originally seen in the physical world. I base my argument on the premise that children’s technological practices do not occur outside of, nor are they separated from the cultural practices that occur on the physical playground, but that children’s social and cultural lives are transmediated (Terrell, 2015). Very little research has endeavoured to explore the evolution of folklore in an increasingly digital age. This dissertation attempts to ignite a re-examination of the intimate relationship between technology and folklore and shine a light on the often-overlooked digital participation of children. Using transmediated sociality theories, I argue that children’s play traditions and folklore harmoniously interact with popular culture and technology, while their online practices act as an extension of this playground folk tradition. Michel Foucault’s (1986) concept of heterotopia informs the analysis of children’s folklore from the physical to the digital playground and is the impetus for the concept of heterotopic transmediated play. The term considers the playground to be a discursive space that upsets and transforms the various spaces that converge within its boundaries, producing a form of play that is simultaneously fluid and placeless yet also stable and grounded. Folklore, as explored through the case studies of play, fandom, YouTube parodies, and TikTok dances, functions as the symbolic ‘glue’ for appropriating popular culture into play practices and children’s navigation of the digital space.