Closing the gap, are we there yet? Reflections on the persistence of second-level digital divide among adolescents in Central and Eastern Europe.
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| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Chapter of a book |
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| 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. |
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