Closing the gap, are we there yet? Reflections on the persistence of second-level digital divide among adolescents in Central and Eastern Europe.

Investor logo

Warning

This publication doesn't include Faculty of Economics and Administration. It includes Faculty of Social Studies. Official publication website can be found on muni.cz.
Authors

BARBOVSCHI Monica MUSCHERT Glenn FIZESAN Bianca RAGNEDDA Massimo

Year of publication 2013
Type Chapter of a book
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Social Studies

Citation
Description Although the divides in Internet access seem to have diminished, there are still significant differences in terms of the digital skills the young users possess (Hargittai, 2002). Drawing upon the data collected in the EU Kids Online II project, the present chapter investigates the differences in digital competencies and self-confidence of teenagers in four countries in Central and Eastern Europe: Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Poland. Building on a conflict perspective which emphasizes how Internet use, understood like a package of particular knowledge and skills, plays an important role in maintaining inequalities (Witte & Mannon, 2009), our study showed that parental background accounts for differences in their own use of internet but also in the digital skills of their children. Moreover, the results showed that adult patterns of internet use reproduce rather than challenge class advantages or disadvantages that parents pass on their children. Finally, children-specific differentiations of use contribute to the deepening of the divides.
Related projects:

You are running an old browser version. We recommend updating your browser to its latest version.