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The rapid technological changes brought by the digital technologies undeniably shape political culture including citizenship practices and understandings of civility among young people. As part of the research project Understanding Youth Participation and Media literacy in Digital Dialogue Spaces (U-YouPa), my doctoral thesis seeks to gain insight into the structural dynamics of participatory culture and intercultural dialogue online among young people in Oslo, Norway. Applying psychoanalytical perspectives, I analyze how the prevailing norms or “imperatives” of the digital society – engagement and authenticity – set off counter tendencies unsettling widely shared assumptions about active civil engagement as an undeniable democratic good. This can help to better understand anxieties young people face in managing their social media presence as attested by phenomena of self-censorship, hesitancy of public discussion, and perceived (justifiably or not) toxic debate climate, which in turn fuels polarization of political opinion and perceptions thereof. The normative contribution of the project addresses critical media literacy efforts for tackling mis- and disinformation by taking a more careful look at the symbolic efficacy of fake content in forming youth cultural identities.