Against the background of the societal meta process of deep mediatization (Hepp 2019), media practices in the private sphere are a natural part of growing up. This is because (digital) media permeate almost all social areas today. However, children's individual media habits differ greatly, whether because of their own preferences and interests or because of their media experiences in their families and peer groups (Paus-Hasebrink et al. 2019). The fact that these differences can also be explained by social diversity is widely discussed under the heading of the digital divide (Hargittai & Hsieh 2013, van Dijk 2020). While individuals with higher socio-economic capital usually have better and broader access not only to digital devices but also to corresponding software and data infrastructure, others lack these accesses to information, communication and entertainment. In addition, the benefits of media use are distributed unequally as a result of different media literacies. This trend is further reinforced by the deep mediatization which also reveals an increasing diversity in children's media repertoires, not only within an age group, but also in relation to dynamic changes in media devices, applications and topics children grow up with. 

At the latest in the wake of the COVID19 pandemic, however, media use is also becoming increasingly important in the school context (Vuorikari et al. 2020). Due to the different media experiences and prerequisites of children from the private context, it seems to be easier for some of them to deal with the schools’ media ensemble and to meet the academic media literacy requirements as for others. However, these prerequisites have hardly been taken into account, e.g. in the current digital education action plan by the European Union (yet). The focus is mainly on normative categories and objectives, as well as technical competencies, while children's individual media repertoires and experiences are hardly considered.  

Against the theoretical background of the communicative figuration approach (Hepp and "Communicative Figurations" research network 2017), we want to stress the relevance of a more individual approach by focusing on the following questions: What effects does mediatization have on both media ensembles of social domains and individual media repertoires of children? What patterns are emerging with regard to informal and educational media use? What conclusions can be drawn for formal education? 

These questions are being answered on the basis of data from the qualitative long-term study "ConnectedKids - Socialization in a Changing Media Environment (ConKids)”. The qualitative panel study provides insights into the media-related socialization of children and focuses on familial negotiation processes. The theoretical framing is provided by the "communicative figurations" approach, which makes Norbert Elias' (1971) figuration approach fruitful for communication and media studies research (Hepp and "Communicative Figurations" research network 2017). This allows us to examine not only the specific actor constellations of social domains such as the family, but also their relevance frameworks and communicative practices. Considering the familial media ensemble (Hasebrink and Hölig 2017) as well as the dynamic power balances and valences between family members are also informative for the study of media-related socialization processes (Kammerl et al. 2021). In addition, conclusions about the social domains of peers and school can be drawn.

In the course of the study, qualitative interviews were conducted in 32 families in North and South Germany, each with one child and one parent. The longitudinal data collection took place in 2018, 2019 and most recently in spring and summer 2022. An additional round of interviews is planned in the first half of 2023. The sample is divided into two cohorts: the younger children were between ten and eleven years old in the last survey 2022 and the older ones between 14 and 15 years old. The parents were asked to send in photographs of the media their child used before getting interviewed. In the third wave, the children also filled in media diaries. These diaries provide information about the role of different media in everyday life. Both sources of data were used primarily as a stimulus to identify media repertoires and to reflect on one's own media practices in the qualitative interviews. These were transcribed and evaluated using qualitative content analysis (Kuckartz 2020). To explain differences at the end of the primary school in the individual media repertoires we focus on cases of the younger cohort (N=15). The longitudinal data from three surveys, beginning shortly after the children started school, allow us to look not only at a single moment, but also at the developments in individual media repertoires. Using contrasting cases, we want to show where deep mediatization emerges as a driver of diversity and how these diversities influence formal learning with digital media in educational contexts.

The findings of the ConKids-study provide a deep insight into the media socialization of children and also make it possible to trace longer-term and dynamic developments in media repertoires under the conditions of a changing media environment in a deep mediatized society. The usage of (digital) media brings along new challenges for individual identity development, developmental tasks and educational success. Differences emerge not only in terms of concrete media usage and topics, but also in media literacy and the informal and formal usage of media in educational contexts. This diversity of children’s media repertoires results in new challenges for educational institutions, which should take up the individual skills, proficiencies and living contexts of children. Based on these results, impulses for individual media competence promotions in schools will be derived, based on the reality of life and educationally related media repertoires of children. In order to enable a competent use of media both in private and in educational as well as later professional contexts, we propose that school media ensembles would have to tie in more with children's individual media experiences.Furthermore, there should be a shift away from a linear thinking towards a more media ecological approach, which is aligned on the different development stages of children.

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