Digital Young

Where do Bucharest teens & youngsters spend time? Both teens and youngsters prove a specific attachment for certain urban public spaces: Romana Square (Piata Romana), Universitatii Square (Piata Universitatii), Unirii Square (Piata Unirii) and commercial centers.

Piata Universitatii

When we talk about indoor spaces, we found an interesting specificity: a high frequency of “safe places”, meaning by that indoor socialization places (pubs, cafes, clubs) where they associate themselves in order to meet the same persons. Therefore these places are marked as belonging to a certain type of young category and young people feel secure by going there.

There are also cozy spots, places that are considered to be “hangout spots”. Teenagers’ use of libraries, National Museum of Art, Museum of Romanian Peasant (at the club) as spaces for socialization qualifies them as third places. I found this name to http://digitalyouth.ischool.berkeley.edu/. These are places which weren’t home or school, where teens hang out in a useful way. Where in Bucharest? Carturesti, Piata Romana, which is a library where they go to drink a tea (there is also a tea shop), to browse interesting magazines (graphic, manga, illustrations etc). La Vasiliada and Cotroceni are two tea shops, where you cannot smoke and also, there is an intimate atmosphere. There are books displayed, and teens are interested in a good tea, good conversation and reading a book. And we are talking specifically about those youngsters from subcultures like rock, hippies, artisans etc. What I could therefore observe is that young people in Bucharest choose to spend time in a edutainment way, meaning educational and entertaining way.

Carturesti Library

If you have seen some similar practices, please let me know, share your opinions here. Or maybe in your town something else is happening and I really would like to know.

Who are they? What are they doing in Romania? How do they identify themselves with the space where they belong? Where and when do they socialize? What are the specific social dynamics?

Again, integrating young people in urban space, specially in Bucharest, I want to see how they define themselves, what are their visions, their expectations and their way of expressing themselves through music, fashion, TIC. Posts that are here integrated will describe every reality of their lives, like high school universe, family and home, socializing spaces, what do they read, what do they watch at TV etc. I will therefore talk about their cultural practices, as youngsters in Bucharest have certain specificities. I don’t want to talk about subjects that sociology has made “famous” when talking about young people (ex: spare time, citizenship, involvement, school etc), but to bring something new, as looking deep in youth culture and spotting those facts that anthropologists call practices.