Afzal, born and raised in Bradford, a place where “everyone is your cousin”, discusses the angsty teen years of his spent “staying out of trouble”, playing cricket in back-alleys and the strong desire he felt to venture out of Bradford. He recalls the early digital cultures he and his family would frequently congregate around, such as Bollywood films, rented from local DVD stores. Afzal’s more independent discovery on the internet taught him to access and pirate illegally downloaded content, which amazed Afzal as there was such an abundance of content, all for free !  He discusses how he continued his enthusiasm for uncovering and accessing the many resources available on the internet in his university years, often falling into “rabbit holes on JSTOR” reading every and anything that interested him, especially within the realm of geo-politics, as digital based moral panics such as the ‘War on Terror’ he found to affect him indirectly.

Jawal, born and raised in West Yorkshire, a place and time he says he loves and recalls always felt “safe” , with lots of open green spaces to occupy and remenices frequently going to parks with all his cousins. Jawad’s perspectives and opinions can be found on his twitter @jawadkhan1998 where he uses the platform to speak on matters relating to the political trade union activist work he does in his spare time. Although a sense of safety in his area, Jawad recalls always being aware of something ‘off’ that he couldn't actually put his finger on until his teenage years. He began understanding this underlying sense of insecurity was actually a result of the organised presence of far right political movements, which led to Jawad feeling alienated at times as a young South Asian lad. The close proximity Jawad now noticed between digital hate speech and real life threats became clear when Tommy Robinson would visit areas very close to Jawad and agitate the growing far right movement. Such awareness led Jawad to using digital culture to learn, through reading and research. He recalls watching the Young Turks, a left-leaning American news broadcasting show, being the first digital news channel he would lean on and learn from. Jawad’s oral history closes with him analysing the pros and cons of digital cultures, a benefit being the leverage to be expressive and creative, whereas a ill of social media is able to radicalise and lead people to the fringes of extremism, looking at the current example of Andrew Tate. Jawad then speculates on whether ‘de-platforming’ is or is not the answer to eradicating hateful ideologies and digital cultures congregated around confusion and ignorance.

Born in London but raised in Oxford, Joana shares her memories of succeeding in almost everything she did, from excelling academically to winning in sports. The safe space for her and her friends growing up was her house she remembers, as she lived the closest to the school, and out the house spaces Joana would frequent would be the sports centres, from the Karate dojo as a child, then the hockey rink as she went through her teen years. We hear of early youtube sensations such as Zoella, who personifies the first big digital culture moment Joana recalls being a part of, sharing she even made a Zoella fan account. Despite Joana not feeling arty or good at creative subjects in school, she really found an interest and passion for fashion and makeup, she’d learn from youtube, then share and practise the processes with her friends. Joana recounts the long-lasting online subcultures and spaces she would and still does use, for reading and studying, such as Booktube and Studytube. Joana gives an insight on the Hackathon/Codefest events she would take part in as a teenager, being early computer based social events whereby people with different skill sets relating to coding come together and compete as a group to overcome challenges, showing us the embrace of and interest a young Joana had for technology.

Kiran grew up in Birmingham in a traditional working class Indian family, and starts by recalling her fondest memories are associated with family, books and sports, describing that reading books for her and her siblings felt like “freedom”. Currently working as a historian, writer and is the founder of the platform Believe In Me CIC (Community Interest Group), providing empowerment to young people and women through education. Kiran explains the earliest era and beginning of mass digital cultures, such as Top of The Pops, when she reminisces about loving Madonna and Kylie Manogue. When the topic of online shopping comes up, Kiran remembers her mothers scepticism and fear of this new online phenomena of a shop that we’re supposed to send money to without seeing or knowing exactly where the money will go or clothes will come. She shares humorous anecdotes that are telling of the early 2000s conspiracy theories fearful of digital technology. Kiran talks of her first hand experience of having a certain stardom shone on her in the early days of twitter, during the 2012 London Olympics, she was nominated to be a torch bearer, and was being asked questions about her ‘online presence’, all of this was very unusual for her. The interview closes with Kiran pointing out the higher levels of personal scrutiny women face on the online realm, even when discussing history, as opposed to her male counterparts discussing similar topics, unlike with women, male appearances were not pointed out and trolled.