Investigation of the Digital Gap between Generations in Terms of the Familiarity, Interest, and Usage of Information and Communication Technology

Abstract

: The purpose of this study was to determine the digital gap between generations in terms of the familiarity, interest, and usage of information and communication technology. Research method was analytical survey and a questionnaire was used as a data collection tool. With regard to the broad research population, non-random purposive sampling of boys and parents, including 102 male students of third year secondary schools and first year high schools of region 10 in Tehran and their parents (102 father or mother) were selected and in terms of familiarity, interest, and usage of technologies such as Internet, email, chat, computer games, and mobile phone were studied. The results of research showed that the average amount of familiarity, interest, and usage of technologies in parents was 2/04 and 3/16 for children. The gap between parents and children, in terms of familiarity with IT was -1/22 while -1/24 in terms of interest and -0/88 in terms of usage of IT. The research hypotheses tests showed that there were significant differences between the average familiarity, interest, and usage of information technology among children and parents.

Keywords

• ICT
• generation gap
• digital divide
• parents and sons