Inclusion or Exclusion? A Review on Social Media and Digital Realities of Tribal Youth

Roshni Kumar, Rahul Kumar and Azamat Ali

Published: 2026/06/01

Abstract

In the expanding digital ecosystem, social media has emerged as both a site of empowerment and exclusion for tribal youth in India. The objective of this review paper is to analyze in depth how social media frames the digital realities faced by tribal youth across Jharkhand. It also places these experiences within wider national trends of digital inequality across India. This showcases the empowering potentials of digital platforms along with deep-rooted structural inequalities that consistently shape uneven digital engagement. Using an interdisciplinary lens, this paper investigates how portrayals, online presence and algorithmic biases create asymmetrical forms of participation. The paper employs a systematic critical review approach. It synthesizes peer-reviewed multidisciplinary research along with policy reports, institutional documents and selected contextual grey literature. On one side, social media offers indigenous youth novel pathways for expression, network accessibility and digital literacy. On the other side, it reinforces structural marginalization through language-based exclusion, infrastructural deficits and representational invisibility. This paper locates such tensions within the broad discourse of the digital empowerment initiative of India, thereby arguing for culturally rooted, community-oriented perspectives of empowerment. By envisioning the debate on inclusion or exclusion, this paper extends a critical understanding of how digital tools both connect and limit the socially excluded youth in the digital era.

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