Shared digital music streaming and parent-adolescent communication: evidence from Turkish Cypriot adolescents

Background

The rapid expansion of online music streaming platforms has transformed adolescents' everyday media practices, making music consumption increasingly individualized, algorithmically curated, and socially networked. While existing scholarship has established the importance of music in adolescent identity formation and emotional regulation, considerably less attention has been devoted to understanding how digitally mediated music listening influences communication within families. As digital-native adolescents increasingly consume music through platforms such as Spotify and YouTube, parents-many of whom remain digital immigrants-face new opportunities and challenges in maintaining meaningful communication with their children. This study investigates whether shared digital music listening constitutes a communicative practice capable of strengthening parent-adolescent relationships. Rather than examining music consumption solely as an individual behavior, the study conceptualizes shared streaming experiences as an interactional process through which emotional exchange, cultural identity, and intergenerational understanding are negotiated.