Generációk az információs társadalomban. Általános iskolások, középiskolások, egyetemisták és a felnőtt lakosság IKT-használatának jellemzői Szegeden - Generations in the Information Society. The Characteristics of ICT Use of Grammar School, High School and University Students, and the Adult Population in Szeged

Abstract

The aim of our article is to analyse the generational differences of ICT access and utilization by presenting the first results of a recent sociological research which was carried out with four different age groups at the beginning of 2012. The paper focuses on the similarities and differences of ICT (computer, internet and mobile phone) access and use of the generations. First of all, we provide the theoretical framework of the analysis by introducing the definitions and literature of the ‘digital gap’, the ‘digital inequalities’ and the ‘digital natives’. In addition to the discussion of the mostly descriptive results of the research, we follow the concepts of digital gap and digital inequalities by first showing the differences of ICT access, then that of some other aspects of ICT use – the place, the autonomy, the intensity and the aim of use – between the generations. As far as the differences in access are concerned, the socio-economic characteristics of users and non-users are considered. The analysis confirms that ICT access and use differences correspond to the generational discrepancies. On the one hand the results show that the most typical characteristic of non-users is their high age. On the other hand we have found that even the members of the young generation – the so-called digital natives – constitute a rather heterogenic population in regard of the different dimensions of ICT use. Further analysis is needed and planned in order to reveal the causal relations behind the results found.

Keywords

• Digital gap
• ICT use
• digital inequalities
• generational differences