Internet skills and the digital divide

Ciencia, Técnica y Mainstreaming Social

Vivimos en una sociedad conectada, donde el uso de Internet ha crecido considerablemente en los últimos años, y se espera siga creciendo aún más a lo largo y ancho del mundo. Como consecuencia, está cambiando el modo en el que las personas nos relacionamos con los demás, pero también con nosotros mismos, e incluso nuestra propia percepción de nuestra propia identidad y bienestar.El presente trabajo pretende analizar la influencia de determinados aspectos sociodemográficos en el uso de internet y su impacto en la percepción del bienestar de las personas.Así, tomando los datos de la European Social Survey se ha analizado la relación entre el uso de internet y la percepción de bienestar- medida a través de autoevaluaciones de nivel de felicidad y satisfacción con la vida de las personas incluidas en la encuesta. Además, factores sociodemográficos tales como edad, género, nivel de ingresos o país también han sido evaluados. Tras aplicar distintos análisis estadísticos los resultados con...

Society and Economy

The paper provides a brief description of the Active Ageing Index (AAI). This indicator, introduced in 2012, aims to measure the potential of older people for active and healthy ageing. The indicator is constructed from European Union survey data, and these results are weighted with coeffi cients determined by experts. One of the variables from the surveys measures the proportion of older people using the internet at least once a week. We argue that such regular internet usage does not show too much variation in this era of the ubiquitous internet, so a more sophisticated defi nition of internet usage must be taken into consideration. Our discussion contains three different AAI variants: the original expert-based, the Djurovic et al. (2017) I-distance indicator, and our factor-based index.

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

Given that older adults constitute a highly heterogeneous group that engages with digital media in varying ways, there is likely to be large variation in technology support needs, something heretofore unaddressed in the literature. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with a multinational sample of older adults, the authors explore the support needs of older adults for using digital media, including their perceptions of whether the support they receive meets their needs. Participants obtained assistance from both informal (e.g., adult children) and formal (e.g., computer classes) sources. However, the support given can lack immediacy, leaving older adults dependent on others’ availability to provide it. Educational approaches that emphasize individualized support and wide availability might allow an improved experience for a population that is increasingly online with an interest in a wide range of activities.

Information Polity

The aim of this paper is to study over- and under representational practices in governmental expert advisory groups on digitalization to open up a dialogue on translations of digitalization. By uncovering how meanings converge and interpretations associated with technology are stabilized or maybe even closed, this research is positioned within a critical research tradition. The chosen analytical framework stretches from technological culture (i.e., how and where the myths and symbolic narratives are constructed), and a focus on the process of interpretation (i.e., the flexibility in how digitalization could be translated and attached to different political goals and values) to a dimension of firstness (addressing education, professional experiences and geographical position to explore dominance and power aspects). The results reveal a homogeneity that is potentially problematic and raises questions about the frames for interpreting what digitalization could and should be and do. We ...

Journal of Agricultural & Food Information, 2015

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Information, Communication & Society

Around the world, digital platforms have become the firstor only option for many everyday activities. The United Kingdom, for instance, is implementing a 'digital-by-default' e-government agenda, which has steadily digitized vital services such as taxes, pensions, and welfare. This pervasive digitization marks an important shift in the relationship between society and computing; people are compelled to use computers and the internet in order to accomplish the basic tasks. We suggest that this era of compulsory computing demands new ways of measuring and theorizing about digital skills, which remain a crucial dimension of the digital divide. In this article, we reexamine the theory and measurement of digital skills, making three contributions to understanding of how digital skills are encountered, acquired, and conceptualized. First, we introduce a new methodology to research skills: participant-observation of novices in the process of learning new skills along with interviews with the people who help them. Our ethnographically informed method leads us to a second contribution: a different theory of skills, which identifies three primary characteristics: (1) sequence, (2) simultaneity, and, most importantly, (3) path abstraction. Third, we argue that these characteristics suggest the need to change current ways skills are measured, and we also discuss the policy implications of this empirically informed theory.

Sustainability

This article describes the process of design, validation, and implementation (N = 609) of a questionnaire drawn up ad hoc to assess the digital competence of compulsory education students (ages 11 to 13) in the area of communication. The test measures students’ knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the six competences that make up the area of communication, as established in the Framework for the Development and Knowledge of Digital Competence in Europe (DigComp): interacting through new technologies, sharing of information and content, online citizen participation, collaboration through digital technologies, netiquette, and digital identity management. The purposes of the study are to design and validate an instrument to assess compulsory education students’ digital competences in the area of communication based on their knowledge, skills, and attitudes and to analyse such instrument’s psychometric characteristics with special emphasis on its reliability and validity. The method used...

Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World

Increasing Internet use is changing the way individuals take part in society. However, a general mobilizing effect of the Internet on political participation has been difficult to demonstrate. This study takes a digital inequality perspective and analyzes the role of Internet expertise for the social structuration of online political participation. Analyses rely on two nationally representative surveys in Switzerland and use cluster analysis and structural equation modeling. A distinct group of political online participants emerged characterized by high education and income. Further, online political participation is predicted by political interest and Internet skills, which increasingly mediated the effects of social position. Digital information policies should therefore consider Internet skills and effective use, particularly in marginalized social groups, to avoid reinforcing traditional participatory inequalities in the digital society.

Information, Communication & Society, 2014

Socioeconomic status (SES) is held to impact Internet users' willingness and ability to productively use online media. This effect can create a "participation divide" between distinct user groups. Recently, studies have enhanced our understanding of the participation divide by differentiating types of online content creation. They found that SES may only affect specific forms of online participation. We suggest that social cognitive theory (SCT) helps explain why and how socio-demographics influence different forms of online participation. Based on SCT, we analyze the mediating effect of two cognitive constructs, self-efficacy and privacy concerns, on different types of online content creation. We conduct a survey among German Internet users and apply structural equation modeling in order to compare three distinct theoretical models. We find that considering the mediating effects of cognitive constructs, based in SCT, improves our understanding of which socio-demographic variables affect which type of online content creationand why.

Sustainability

Modern people live in the era of knowledge and digitalization supposed to increase their quality of life. Nevertheless, digital technologies are only the instruments in the development and transformation of social-economic processes and their usage per se does not ensure only positive effects, which much depends on goals, conditions, institutes, etc. Thus, digitalization has an unambiguous influence on many social-economic processes and needs a wise policy to provide smooth progress and well-being for everybody. This study aims to design and test appropriate tools for managing digitalization to direct this process on increasing the quality of life. For this purpose we analyzed: (1) correlation to identify interrelations between digitalization and quality of life; (2) the potential of using the visualization matrix method to identify and monitor national trends of digitalization in the context of quality of life. We found: (1) close correlation between subjective and objective indica...

The Information Society

This study assessed the construct and criterion validity of the short version of the Internet Skills Scale and examined whether its four dimensions-Operational, Information Navigation, Social, and Creative skillsare influenced by a higher-order dimension of general internet skills as one second-order factor. In 2018, a face-to-face survey comprising of the 20-item Internet Skills Scale and 22 other items related to digital inclusion was conducted in a sample of 814 internet users in Slovenia. The results of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, as well as other multivariate methods, showed that the Internet Skills Scale is characterized by high to adequate convergent and divergent validity. Acceptable criterion validity was observed for Operational and Information Navigation skills. In terms of measurement invariance, the data supported configural and metric invariance, whereas the scalar invariance was not fully confirmed, suggesting that older adults' lower scores on the Creative skills items were not related to lower levels of internet skills in the same way as they were among younger individuals. Last, the results provided original evidence of the Internet Skills Scale as a second-order construct, meaning that a single summative Internet Skills Scale score could be created as an adequate measure of an individual's internet skills.

Sustainability, 2021

There is a clear need to promote motivating and effective training actions for the development of teachers’ digital competence, especially in the area of e-safety. Although educational video game-based learning has proven effective to improve motivation and learning outcomes, the existing evidence about its effectiveness for the development of teachers’ digital competence is very limited. This study examines the use of educational video games in an online course in MOOC format with the aim of developing teachers’ digital competence in the e-safety area. A total of 179 teachers from nonuniversity schools in the region of Castilla y León (Spain) participated in this study. A pre-test and a post-test were used to measure the knowledge acquired by the participants, and a questionnaire was used to measure their perceptions. The obtained results suggest that game-based learning using educational video games is an effective and viable approach to train teachers in the e-safety area of digi...

Buletin Riset Psikologi dan Kesehatan Mental (BRPKM)

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk menguji menguji validitas skala digital literacy yang dikembangkan Wan Ng pada individu dewasa awal. Digital literacy merupakan suatu kemampuan yang dibutuhkan individu untuk beraktivitas pada dunia digital secara optimal, khususnya pada individu dewasa awal. Metode penelitian yang digunakan adalah menggunakan metode survei dengan memberikan kuesioner online pada partisipan yang telah ditentukan kriterianya. Hasil analisis menunjukan bahwa terdapat validitas pada skala digital literacy yang dikembangkan Wan Ng pada individu dewasa awal. Berdasarkan analisis kriteria eigenvalues terdapat 3 faktor yang dihasilkan dengan rentang nilai factor loading 0.49 dan-0.88, serta terdapat 1 item yang perlu dieliminasi. Berdasarkan analisis kriteria fixed number terdapat 1 faktor yang dihasilkan dengan rentang nilai factor loading 0.48-0.78 dan item yang dieliminasi berjumlah 3. Meskipun item digital literacy sudah memenuhi kriteria validitas, Studi lanjut diperlukan untuk menyempurnakan alat ukur digital literacy.

2021

Purpose The advent of technology has enabled frequent innovations in the digital modes of doing business. While some users are reluctant to adopt one, others have made it their way of life. The purpose of this study is to find out the approximate time frame of a digital user in an emerging economy like India to adopt their favorite digital application. The importance of an individual’s level of internet skills is explored in the aspect of adopting digital innovations. Design/methodology/approach The study follows a quantitative approach where data collected from both primary and secondary sources are analyzed to arrive at the results. In total, 837 responses collected with the help of a structured questionnaire are entered and analyzed using SPSS. Multinomial logistic regression is the statistical tool used in the research. Findings Five sets of adopter categories based on Rogers (1983) are created using an adoption score and are represented in a Time Horizon to understand better. T...

Les pratiques et compétences (trans-) littéraciques

Les jeunes ont fréquemment recours à Wikipédia, mais la confiance qu’ils accordent à cette encyclopédie collaborative n’est pas optimale et sa réputation demeure controversée. Les filles/femmes font-elles preuve d’une plus grande défiance vis-à-vis de cette source si particulière ? D’après le modèle de sélectivité, elles seraient plus sensibles aux risques informationnels et plus prudentes dans leur démarche évaluative. L’enquête par questionnaire menée auprès de 841 jeunes âgés de 11 à 25 ans montre l’existence de différences genrées à propos de la confiance épistémique en Wikipédia, de la sensibilité à sa réputation et des connaissances informationnelles à son sujet. Néanmoins, la prise en compte du niveau de scolarité amène à nuancer l’influence du genre sur le rapport à cette source.

Advances in Educational Technologies and Instructional Design

Energy-related training is much needed for SIDS to achieve sustainable development goals and reduce energy poverty. Online learning enables innovative formats of practice-centered trainings that address local needs and help overcome geographic constraints by efficiently reaching learners on remote islands. To justify high course production costs, content must be re-usable and the instructional design must match participants' motivation, skills, capacity, and constraints. An interdisciplinary university research cooperation used SIDS survey data to develop a learner-driven, collaborative online course for energy practitioners. Problem-based learning and peer-review mechanisms were used to localize knowledge and to practice real-world skills; sustainable institutional structures assure future iterations. The pilot reached a heterogeneous audience of 1,000 learners, geographically dispersed across the main SIDS regions. Principles of learning design outlined by the authors may also be valuable for capacity-building with geographically dispersed, heterogeneous learners beyond SIDS.

Journal of Urban Affairs

This paper presents an explorative case study to understand the drivers and barriers that influence the adoption of smartphone-based city management apps as e-governance tools in U.S. cities. Using interviews with government officials and citizen focus groups in a southeastern city, we systematically examine the facilitators and barriers from the perspectives of the government and citizens. Our findings suggest that the city management app system was primarily adopted by the government to improve service efficiency through information integration and workflow automation on the backend. It is viewed by both the government and citizens as an innovative twoway communication tool that encourages citizens to report service problems and facilitates service improvement. However, the app's potentials of being an open dialogic and social space to engage citizens in a full range of coproduction activities have not yet been sufficiently realized. Implications for city managers and smart city app developers are discussed.

Information Technology & People, 2015

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors which influence refugee migrants’ adoption of digital technology and its relevance to their social inclusion in Australia. Design/methodology/approach – This research developed a conceptual framework keeping the “use” of digital technology as the centre-piece of the digital divide. The empirical data were derived from a series of focus group discussions with refugee migrants in an Australian regional city, Toowoomba in Queensland. Findings – There is a digital divide among refugee migrant groups and it is based on inequalities in physical access to and use of digital technology, the skills necessary to use the different technologies effectively and the ability to pay for the services. The opportunities to use digital technology could support the social inclusion of refugee migrant groups in the broader Australian community. Research limitations/implications – Further research is required to examine whether this digital di...

Policy & Internet

The "Internet-of-Things" (IoT) promises social benefits across a range of policy areas, such as energy, health, transportation, public safety, and environmental policy, but attention to the skills needed by individuals who use it will be an important issue for public policy, in order to ensure full exploitation of these technologies and to avoid unintended consequences. We argue that comparative advantages of the IoT to people will vary based on differentiated skills and resources, enabling smaller groups of people to benefit, and disadvantaging others in new ways. This need for renewed attention to digital skills and knowledge might at first seem paradoxical, given that many of these technologies operate autonomously and behind the scenes. We discuss evolving digital technologies and related skills, and explain from a systems perspective how the IoT differs from prior technologies, with a premium placed on user knowledge and strategic skills. Finally, we bring together the issues of the digital divide and IoT skills, and set an agenda for future IoT public policy and research.

Progress in Human Geography

Digital technologies are profoundly reshaping how people relate to unknown others, yet urban studies and geographies of encounter have yet to adequately incorporate these changes into theory and research. Building on a longstanding concern with stranger encounters in social and urban theory, this paper explores how digital technology brings new possibilities and challenges to urban life. With examples ranging from GPS-enabled apps for sex and dating to sharing economy platforms that facilitate the peer-to-peer exchange of services, new practices mediated by digital technology are making many stranger encounters a matter of choice rather than chance, and they are often private as much as they are public. This paper examines these changes to develop a conceptualisation of stranger intimacy as a potentially generative form of encounter involving conditional relations of openness among the unacquainted, through which affective structures of knowing, providing, befriending or even loving...

International Communication Gazette, 2019

The “Bnei Menashe” are a marginalized community that immigrated from India to Israel. The community has diverse information needs, yet they are characterized by difficulties that prevent them from acquiring vital information. In this study, we utilized Sen’s (1993) “capabilities approach” as well as Friedland et al. (2012) “critical information needs” for the identification of the Bnei Menashe’s information capabilities, and the ways in which they answer them. The study was conducted using semi-structured individual in-depth interviews. The findings of the study relate that the Bnei Menashe succeed only partially in realizing the capability of being informed. This is a result of the partial technological exclusion that characterizes the community. This is a first-of-its-kind study, as the Bnei Menashe have not been studied methodically. Furthermore, the utilization of the capabilities approach represents a major contribution to existing communication theories, as the approach allows...

Computers in Human Behavior, 2021

Using panel data on immigrant populations from European, Asian and African countries the study estimates positive associations between the number of mobile applications in use aiming to facilitate immigrants' societal integration (m-Integration) and increased level of integration (Ethnosizer), good overall health (EQ-VAS) and mental health (CESD-20). It is estimated that the patterns are gender sensitive. In addition, it is found that m-Integration applications in relation to translation and voice assistants, public services, and medical services provide the highest returns on immigrants' level of integration, health/mental health status. For instance, translation and voice assistant applications are associated with a 4% increase in integration and a 0.8% increase in good overall health. Moreover, m-Integration applications aided by artificial intelligence (AI) are associated with increased health/mental health and integration levels among immigrants. We indicate that AI by providing customized search results, peer reviewed e-learning, professional coaching on pronunciation, real-time translations, and virtual communication for finding possible explanations for health conditions might bring better quality services facilitating immigrants' needs. This is the first known study to introduce the term 'm-Integration', quantify associations between applications, health/mental health and integration for immigrants, and assess AI's role in enhancing the aforementioned outcomes.

International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence, 2017

Internet literacy is crucial to become information literate and for lifelong learning for today's citizens. However, there is an identified gendered digital divide in Internet usage, as the major proportion of unconnected citizens, especially in the developing economies in asian countries are women. The problems of the gender digital divide are not just limited to connectivity and infrastructural issues, literacy and the cost of access, which are often discussed in the literature. The authors identify some of the second order factors that are often overlooked and arise out of cognitive, psychological and social factors leading to the digital divide. The paper also discusses possible measures that could be taken up to address the second order gender digital divide.

Yaşlı Sorunları Araştırma Dergisi, 2020

It can be said that the internet use and social media use and accessibility are much more important for youth and play a key role in participating in online social life. It is observed that the individuals, who are 60 years old and over, are more "deliberate", "shy" and "cautious" than youth in this matter. In this study, the place of technology in their lives, usage methods and purposes, appropriate-efficient use of technology and the technical and generational problems faced in use of technology were considered in the interviews made with total 23 individuals who are 60 and above. It was concluded that they took place in a new socialization process through social media tools and use of technological products which they considered as part of the "necessities of the time" and "holding onto life". It is also observed that individuals are subjected to a particular age categorization in terms of technology. This classification includes a definition which limits the type of product/technology and the use and purpose of that product/technology. It is tried to comment which social media applications are used by 60 and above individuals through products such as mobile phone, tablet, computer, etc. the purposes of use of such applications, the need for help in use of technological products and their experiences in problem solving of the participants according to their opinions in terms of self-interpretation in the scope of this research.

International Journal of Digital Literacy and Digital Competence, 2017

This article describes how Saudi Arabia has a scholarship program that provides opportunities for Saudi citizens to pursue their undergraduate and graduate university education abroad. Because students have not mastered English, they initially enroll in an English institution. The internet is an enormously valuable learning tool for ESL students. However, Saudi students' use of information resources for learning English is unclear. This study thus investigates the information-seeking behavior of scholarship students when using online resources to learn ESL. The findings reveal that the students have a positive perception of online resources; however, they require training on searching for and using such resources. It is also found that most students use self-motivation to find online resources to increase their knowledge of English. The lack of awareness of appropriate resources is found to be the most common problem.

Comunicar, 2019

Despite the efforts made, there is still an alarming difference between the digital competence that teachers have and the one they should have in order to develop their students' digital competence. The lack of teacher training in safe and responsible use of ICT is a special cause for concern. Online courses in MOOC format meet all the required conditions to offer a possible solution to the unavoidable and urgent need for initial and in-service teacher training in this area of digital competence. However, there is currently no evidence in the literature on the effectiveness of these courses for this purpose. This study examines the instructional effectiveness of courses in MOOC format for teacher training in the safe and responsible use of ICT by analysing three different official courses. The courses were analysed using three different methods: a questionnaire to measure participants’ perceptions, pre-tests and post-tests to measure the knowledge acquired, and LORI (Learning Ob...

Universal Access in the Information Society, 2020

Although Sweden is one of the most digitalized countries and the Swedish population’s use of the internet is among the most studied in the world, little is known about how Swedes with disabilities use internet. The purpose of this study is to describe use of and perceived difficulties in use of the internet among people with disabilities and to explore digital divides in-between and within disability groups, and in comparison with the general population. This is a cross-sectional survey targeting the same issues as other nationwide surveys but adapted for people with cognitive disabilities. Participants were recruited from May to October 2017 by adaptive snowball sampling. The survey comprised questions on access to and use of devices, and use of and perceived difficulties in use of internet. A total of 771 people responded to the survey, representing 35 diagnoses/impairments. Larger proportions of people with autism, ADHD and bipolar disorder reported using internet than other disa...

New Media & Society, 2017

This article examines the views of researchers in five social science and humanities disciplines on their digital literacy and the training they need or have undertaken. Theoretically, this article draws upon two competing conceptualisations of digital literacy: digital literacy as ‘user skills’ and digital literacy as ‘user–technology interactivity’. Empirically, it suggests that social science and humanities researchers’ understandings and evaluations of their digital literacy unfold at two levels – the factual and the perceptual – and involve not only (technical) skills but also user experiences, emotions and complex processes of learning, practising and self-development when interacting with technology. Furthermore, researchers challenge the value of generic institutional training for literacy enhancement and envision the development of informal communities of experience exchange and knowledge-sharing across the research community. These findings lead to recommendations on train...

BMC Public Health, 2019

Background: Digital media are increasingly abundant and used to seek health information, however, to date very little is known on parents' seeking behavior in the context of child's health and development outside English-speaking and Scandinavian countries. By investigating the prevalence of, and reasons for use, we studied parents' perception of the Internet as a resource for improving their health-related knowledge. Methods: The survey was conducted in a random sample of 2573 Swiss-German parents with at least one child aged less-than 2 years old. Parents received a mailed invitation to fill in an online questionnaire. Two reminders were sent, the later with a paper questionnaire attached. The questionnaire included questions on use of print, digital, and personal information sources, as well as different information situations: general health and development or illness. We ran descriptive analyses on information seeking behavior, type of digital media used, reasons of use. We also conducted regression analyses to explore factors associated with parental perceptions with regard to the Internet's utility as a source for health information. Results: A total of 769 questionnaires were returned (response rate 30%). Nearly all parents (91%) used digital media for seeking information on their child's health and development, and the main reason for use was indicated as being the 24/7 availability of information. Search engines (55%) and webpages for parents (47%) were by far the most frequently used digital media. Generally, the internet is perceived as a good resource, especially by fathers (OR = 1.80, 95% CI: 1.03-3.16). However, a large percentage of parents are skeptical about the correctness of online info (91%), are unsure about their interpretive understanding, and ask for guidance from their pediatrician (67%). Conclusions: The Internet has become a highly frequented source of information for Swiss-German parents on children's health with largely valuable perceptions of its utility. Digital media are used in addition to and not in replacement of print media and personal contacts. Increasing parental guidance by health and public health professionals could improve parental digital health utilization and empower parents in the new role they adopt.

Wikipédia, objet scientifique non identifié

Les études sur les effets de génération, notamment celles en lien avec les « nouvelles » technologies ou les « nouveaux » médias numériques, sont souvent focalisées sur ce que les jeunes font aujourd'hui et qu'ils ne faisaient pas hier, ou sur ce qu'ils ne font plus aujourd'hui alors qu'ils le faisaient hier. Le succès médiatique des notions de digital natives (Prensky, 2001) ou de Net Generation (Tapscott, 1999) provient ainsi de thèses sur les usages juvéniles qui ne sont pas fondées sur des études empiriques. Ces expressions masquent sans doute des questions beaucoup plus simples et moins soumises à l'impossibilité d'établir des résultats « toutes choses étant égales par ailleurs». C'est à une de ces questions que tente de répondre cet article : les jeunes usagers de Wikipédia, pour qui l'encyclopédie collaborative est un outil familier, apprennent-ils quelque chose sur cet outil par le simple fait de son usage ? Si oui, qu'apprennent-ils ? Si certaines études montrent déjà que les « simples lecteurs » n'ont pas le même niveau de connaissance sur l'encyclopédie que ses contributeurs, nous nous focalisons sur l'effet d'une variable assez triviale : le niveau de scolarité des jeunes usagers. Cet article cherche donc à caractériser les connaissances qu'ont les collégiens, lycéens et étudiants à propos de Wikipédia.

New Media & Society, 2016

Recent studies have enhanced our understanding of digital divides by investigating outcomes of Internet use. We extend this research to analyse positive and negative outcomes of Internet use in the United Kingdom. We apply structural equation modelling to data from a large Internet survey to compare the social structuration of Internet benefits with harms. We find that highly educated users benefit most from using the web. Elderly individuals benefit more than younger ones. Next to demographic characteristics, technology attitudes are the strongest predictors of online benefits. The harms from using the Internet are structured differently, with educated users and those with high levels of privacy concerns being most susceptible to harm. This runs counter to intuitions based on prior digital divide research, where those at the margins should be most at risk. While previous research on digital inequality has only looked at benefits, the inclusion of harms draws a more differentiated p...

Korean Social Science Journal, 2014

This study examined whether Internet-based multitasking facilitates information gain by allowing users to seek additional information online. Study 1, using survey data, suggested that TV-Internet multitasking increased information gain, whereas TV-print media multitasking reduced it. In addition, online information seeking mediated the effect of TV-Internet multitasking on information gain. Study 2, using experimental data, confirmed the differential effects of TV-Internet multitasking and TV-print multitasking on information gain. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are further discussed.

Communication and Information Technologies Annual, 2014

Purpose: Technostress and information overload are serious challenges of the information age. An alarming number of people exhibit dangerously intensive media consumption, while Internet and mobile phone addictions are a widespread phenomenon. At the same time, new media overexposure among young people is understudied, even more so when social network sites are concerned. Methodology/approach: This study explores how feelings of overexposure and stress relate to the self-expressive needs of teenagers. It presents and discusses the results of a large-scale survey conducted during an exhibition on media overload in Switzerland. A total of 6989 adolescents provided answers on their media overload and stress. Descriptive statistics and logistic regression were used to quantify the influence of demographic characteristics on social network site related stress. Findings: While only a minority of 13 percent of respondents feels stressed by social network sites, more than one third has the feeling of spending too much time on such platforms. Age, gender and language background (French vs. German speaking) shape the overload propensity, with older, male and French speaking teenagers most at risk for social network site stress. Social implications: The study proposes that social divides exist in teenagers' ability to cope with a specific affordance of social network sites, namely their constant status updates and potential of overexposure. Furthermore, it reflects upon the relation between identity performance and stress. Originality of paper: The paper is one of the first to investigate social network site overload with a broad sample approach, quantifying antecedents of the phenomenon.

Information Technology & People, 2019

Purpose Digital financial services (DFS) have substantial prospect to offer a number of reasonable, appropriate and secure banking services to the underprivileged in developing countries through pioneering technologies such as mobile phone based solutions, digital platforms and electronic money models. DFS allow unbanked people to obtain access to financial services through digital technologies. However, DFS face tough challenges of adoption. Realising this, the purpose of this paper is to identify such challenges and develop a framework. Design/methodology/approach The authors developed a framework of challenges by utilising interpretive structural modelling (ISM) and fuzzy MICMAC approach. The authors explored 18 such unique set of challenges culled from the literature and further gathered data from two sets of expert professionals. In the first phase, the authors gathered data from 29 professionals followed by 18 professionals in the second phase. All were pursuing Executive MBA ...

Online Media and Global Communication

Purpose An association between age and misinformation is frequently found in literature, which contributes to a moral panic about older people’s participation in the dissemination of fake news. This qualitative study adds context to this discussion by investigating why older people are motivated to engage with online information and why sharing matters in old age. Design/methodology/approach A 16-month ethnographic study was conducted with a group of older adults in São Paulo, Brazil. Participant observation was complemented by in-depth interviews in order to approach participant strategies to evaluate online content and health information. Findings Participants were connected in multiple WhatsApp groups in which they shared content associated with active aging. Sharing helped them to craft their identity as third-agers at the same time that their work as curators was motivated by the local work-oriented ethics. An indirect system of influences impacted the participants’ decisions t...

Psychology Research and Behavior Management

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of services, but at the same time, some user groups are excluded due to a lack of digital skills. One of the vulnerable groups is people with mental health problems. It has previously been found that self-efficacy beliefs explain the use of digital technology, but the role of social support is largely unexamined. Bandura's concept of proxy agency provides a useful concept to investigate the role of social support in using digital services. Objective: The study investigates sources of social support and the effect of proxy agency, Internet efficacy, and self-efficacy beliefs on the intention to use digital health and social care services. Methods: Participants (N = 121) were users in community-based mental health services who were recruited through four organizations in southern Finland for a cross-sectional study. The scales for proxy agency and intention to use services were developed for purpose of the study. The questionnaire also comprised self-efficacy and Internet efficacy scales. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and linear regression analysis. Results: Both Internet self-efficacy and proxy efficacy (p < 0.001) predicted the intention to use digital health and social care services. Self-efficacy had an indirect positive effect on intention through Internet self-efficacy. Family members and friends were the main source of social support in using digital services. Conclusion: Internet self-efficacy and proxy efficacy are important contributors to the intention to use digital health and social care services. Proxy agents may serve as facilitators to reduce the digital divide and promote the use of digital services by complementing individuals' self-efficacy and Internet self-efficacy beliefs. It is important to develop different forms of social support, such as peer support, to enhance the quality of proxy agency. The limitations of proxy agency are discussed.

Information, Communication &amp; Society, 2021

The rise of public and other non-recreational digital services is based on the idea of catering to the daily needs of the citizens cost-efficiently and with ease. Previous research has approached the use of digital services mainly from the perspective of an individual, while the significance of shared practices of use has attracted only a little attention. In this article, we (1) examine the incentives and limitations associated with the use of nonrecreational digital services, which either encourage or discourage older adults to use them. Based on the first question, we then ask (2) how older adults in this study manage those nonrecreational digital services they have chosen to use. Our qualitative analysis is based on participant-induced elicitation (PIE) interviews (n = 21) carried out in Central Finland with older adults aged between 65 and 89. Our findings suggest that there are conflicting views about digital servicesthey simultaneously evoke both positive and negative associations among interviewees. The incentives and limitations of digital services are expressly heterogeneous among older adults and vary depending on the individual and shared digital repertoire of each user. We describe how participants in this study employed multiple strategies, such as sharing digital repertoires with warm experts, to actively manage using digital services in their daily lives.

2020

BACKGROUND First detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the novel coronavirus (i.e., “COVID-19”) pandemic stretched the medical system in Wuhan and posed an immense challenge to the state’s risk communication efforts. Timely access to quality healthcare information during outbreaks of infectious diseases can be effective to curtail the spread of disease and feelings of anxiety. While these existing studies have greatly extended our knowledge about online health information seeking behavior, processes and motivations, rarely have the findings been applied to an outbreak. Moreover, there is relatively little recent research on how people in China are using the Internet for seeking health information in a time of a pandemic. OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to explore how people in China are using the Internet for seeking health information in a time of a pandemic. Drawing on previous research of online health information seeking, this study asks the following research ques...

Current Sociology

For the recent 3 years, there has been a growing research interest in adaptation to the new normality and crisis digitalization during pandemic. However, there are a little empirical researches in cultural organizations. This study is in line with some sorts of approaches of network society and autonomy. The aim of the research is to study how cultural institutions integrate into the network society through one of the critical elements in creating a network society – digitalization during COVID-19 pandemic. The study was conducted using a mixed methodology in 2021 in St. Petersburg. Three blocks of empirical data were collected and analyzed based on theaters, museums, libraries, and creative spaces: 67 questionnaires; 12 expert interviews; webometrics of social networks of 108 organizations. The key difficulties were the weakness of the technical base and the lack of competencies and specialists to produce content and attract an audience online. The key findings are three strategies...

Technology in Society, 2020

is a full professor in the Department of Business of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. His research focuses on consumer researc, the sociology of consumption, culture consumption, media studies, qualitative research, and information, communication and society. He is involved in several projects that concern culture, leisure, and the digital technologies, and has published numerous articles on several facets of culture, leisure and the digital technologies. Giuseppe Lamberti is a postdoctoral researcher at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. He presented his Ph. thesis in 2015 at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC), Spain. His research interests cover traditional multivariate analyses, structural equation modeling (SEM), and partial least squares (PLS) path modeling algorithms, with a particular interest in the issue of heterogeneity in SEM. He is the developer and maintainer of the genpathmox R package. Jakkapong Sukphan is a PhD student in the Department of Business of the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), Spain. His research focuses on the digital technologies.

Journal of Pharmaceutical Policy and Practice, 2020

Background Most pharmacists agree that continuing education (CE) programs positively affect their practice and increase their knowledge, with computer-based courses being their preferred type of CE (60.6%). The route to using medical e-services and e-learning is not straightforward. High setup costs and time commitments to sustain quality are issues brought up in this respect. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to validate the general confidence with computer use (GCWCU) scale and assess computer literacy and its associated factors among Lebanese pharmacists. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted, using a random sample of Lebanese pharmacists from all districts of Lebanon. The general confidence with computer use (GCWCU) scale was used to assess computer literacy. Results This study enrolled 628 (83.73%) pharmacists. The GCWCU items converged over two factors (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.716). A higher GCWCU was associated with the ease of access to the Order of Pharma...

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2020

The most common requirement for informal caregivers is to experience a respite or temporary break from their caregiving routine. Some initiatives have been undertaken to provide respite care through volunteer providers. We report on a qualitative study carried out in Santiago, Chile, to learn about the willingness of potential volunteers to provide respite care for bedridden older persons, as well as their willingness to use information and communication technologies (ICT) to connect to caregivers in a low-income neighbourhood within their own geographic district. A trustworthy institution that mediates the volunteer–caregiver relationship is considered to be important by potential volunteers. Potential volunteers were found to be willing to use ICT to provide respite care, sharing basic information about themselves. However, they were also aware of the digital skill gap that may exist between them and the caregivers and were distrustful of unknown websites that could connect them t...

Translational Behavioral Medicine

Background Behavioral digital health interventions (e.g., mobile apps, websites, wearables) have been applied widely to improve health outcomes. However, many groups (e.g., people with low income levels, people who are geographically isolated, older adults) may face obstacles to technology access and use. In addition, research has found that biases and stereotypes can be embedded within digital health interventions. As such, behavioral digital health interventions that intend to improve overall population health may unintentionally widen health-related inequities. Purpose This commentary offers guidance and strategies to mitigate these risks when using technology as a means for delivering a behavioral health intervention. Methods A collaborative working group from Society of Behavioral Medicine’s Health Equity Special Interest Group developed a framework to center equity in the development, testing and dissemination of behavioral digital health interventions. Results We introduce Pa...

Handbook of Comparative Studies on Community Colleges and Global Counterparts, 2017

The general aim of this chapter is to provide an overview of the main results of educational research studying 1) the concept of ICT competence; 2) the assessment of ICT competences and 3) characteristics related to differences in ICT competences. More specifically, the relationship between student, teacher and school level characteristics and primary school students' ICT competences is described in the context of direct, performance-based assessment. At the end of the chapter, three underlying topics that are important for future research are discussed, that is, 1) the difference between the theoretical and empirical dimensionality of ICT competences; 2) the development of user-friendly assessment instruments; and 3) the need for research focusing on alternative ICT competences.

The Information Society, 2018

Many universal access policies are based on the assumption that the removal of the digital divide will enhance social mobility. But this assumption is not supported by the available evidence and hence remains an open question. Using four waves of longitudinal data from Britain we show that Internet use has a positive effect on social class mobility, while controlling for age, gender, education, health, and previous social class membership between 1997 and 2013. In doing so, we contribute to a wider discussion of the relationships between social and digital inequalities and highlight the challenges and potential of this methodological approach for future research.

Universal Access in the Information Society

Social media platforms have become significant media for participating in society. This, and society’s digitalization overall, has resulted in concerns regarding access and inclusion. By combining theories of social media participation and digital inequality, we explore issues regarding the prerequisites of participating through social media platforms, focusing especially on education. Through an analysis of data from a representative survey study in Finland (N = 3724), we illuminate the ambiguity of the perceived obstacles to both digital skills and political participation. We further build on the concept of digital capital to show the significant mediating effect of digital skills on education and participation. By utilizing the ISS (Internet Skills Scale), we break down digital skills into operational, information navigation, social, creative and mobile skills, and show how the operational skills have most significant mediator between education and political participation in soci...

Vivat Academia. Revista de Comunicación

Este análisis de caso es un estudio sobre las competencias digitales en el currículo de formación de periodistas, modelo planteado a partir del cruce de la propuesta de Ferrés y Piscitelli sobre las dimensiones de la Competencia Mediática y las DigComp desarrolladas por la Comisión Europea. El objeto de estudio es la Licenciatura en Comunicación Social de la Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas del Salvador programa de formación con tradición en estudios en periodismo, en el que se realiza un ajuste curricular en el año 2019 con miras a una doble presencialidad, la cual se convierte en tendencia por el contexto de pandemia. Como método de investigación, se utilizó el análisis de contenido de las dimensiones de las competencias digitales en su plan de estudios. Los resultados muestran que no hay una profundización en el concepto de competencia, siendo equivalente a destreza y no existe descripción de lo que se entiende como imagen y competencia digital, limitados a espacios...

Frontiers in Education, 2021

This paper addresses the development of performance-based assessment items for ICT skills, skills in dealing with information and communication technologies, a construct which is rather broadly and only operationally defined. Item development followed a construct-driven approach to ensure that test scores could be interpreted as intended. Specifically, ICT-specific knowledge as well as problem-solving and the comprehension of text and graphics were defined as components of ICT skills and cognitive ICT tasks (i.e., accessing, managing, integrating, evaluating, creating). In order to capture the construct in a valid way, design principles for constructing the simulation environment and response format were formulated. To empirically evaluate the very heterogeneous items and detect malfunctioning items, item difficulties were analyzed and behavior-related indicators with item-specific thresholds were developed and applied. The 69 item’s difficulty scores from the Rasch model fell withi...

Society and Economy, 2020

The paper provides a brief description of the Active Ageing Index (AAI). This indicator, introduced in 2012, aims to measure the potential of older people for active and healthy ageing. The indicator is constructed from European Union survey data, and these results are weighted with coeffi cients determined by experts. One of the variables from the surveys measures the proportion of older people using the internet at least once a week. We argue that such regular internet usage does not show too much variation in this era of the ubiquitous internet, so a more sophisticated defi nition of internet usage must be taken into consideration. Our discussion contains three different AAI variants: the original expert-based, the Djurovic et al. (2017) I-distance indicator, and our factor-based index.

Korkut Ata Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, 2023

Araştırmanın amacı, Türkiye’deki ebeveynlerin internet kullanım alışkanlıklarını, dijital okuryazarlık becerileri araştırmak ve ebeveynlerin çocuklarını dijital risklerden korumadaki arabuluculuk stratejilerini incelemektir. Bu amaçla ebeveynlerin; internette bilgiye erişebilme, gizliliklerini sağlayabilme, pozitif içerik üretebilme, dijital araçları bilinçli ve güvenli kullanabilme gibi operasyonel, yaratıcı ve mobil becerileri incelenmiştir. Bu çalışmanın örneklemi, Türkiye İstatistiki Bölge Birimleri Sınıflandırması düzey-2’ye göre Türkiye’nin 81 ilden seçilen ve 8-16 yaş grubundaki çocukların ebeveyni olan 10.475 kişiden oluşmaktadır. Veriler, Global Kids Online çerçevesine uygun olacak şekilde kişisel ve demografik bilgi formuna ek olarak araştırmacılarca hazırlanan 23 soruluk veri kümesi kullanılarak çevrimiçi anket yoluyla toplanmıştır. Veriler betimsel istatistik modeli kullanılarak analiz edilmiştir. Bulgular; ebeveynlerin büyük çoğunluğunun internet erişimi için akıllı tel...

Humanities & social sciences communications, 2023

The new digital panorama has enhanced the importance of the Internet, as well as Information and Communications Technology (ICT), in developing a society in which seniors play a proactive role. The main purpose of this article is to define a taxonomy of silver surfers according to the ways they use the Internet and ICT, with a special focus on e-commerce and e-government. A quantitative methodology was used, based on the study of 405 Spanish internet users between 60 and 79 years of age, which was conducted by telephone in February of 2019. Seven groups were identified through a combination of dimensionality reduction techniques and cluster analysis. The results indicate neither a consistent pattern in the specific ways older adults use the Internet nor a homogeneous level of digital knowledge among this demographic group. To some extent, this is a result of disparities in both the perception of digital security that seniors associate with e-commerce and/or e-government and the level of trust engendered by such operations. The Able and Daring are the most numerous clusters, which coincide with the categories of the most active and prepared users. The Sceptical take third place in terms of number of users, as they display limited use of the Internet and claim to have a low digital skills level. However, carrying out both online shopping and administrative procedures without the need for assistance is becoming increasingly frequent among all of those surveyed.

Journal of Ageing and Longevity

Background: Whilst qualitative research has previously been conducted on older people’s personal resilience and wellbeing during COVID-19, there are fewer empirical studies on the impact it had on social connectedness for this age group. In this paper we seek to examine older people’s social connectedness to others during the pandemic, their personal experiences of seeking out those connections, and whether there are any identifiable pre-existing factors that enabled them to minimise the impact of enforced isolation. Methods: Using a phenomenological methodology, we conducted in-depth interviews with 13 older people between March and May 2021. These interviews explored the participant’s lived experiences of staying socially connected to others during the enforced lockdowns and various restrictions. Results: Our findings reveal strong themes of personal resilience, sense of coherence and other protective factors, but also highlight the benefits of establishing connections to friends,...

Frontiers in Education, 2023

This study examines social inequalities in Philippine universities that were exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic. A quantitative approach using a national sample of 677 university students was utilized to measure the mediating role of digital capital on social inequalities associated with belonging to academic spaces. For the purpose of determining direct and indirect impacts, structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed. Sociodemographic (i.e., gender, age, type of residence, and family income) and educational (i.e., type of university, year in the university, and excellence criterion) characteristics were the direct predictors that were examined as exogenous variables for both digital capital and belonging. Results indicate that type of residence (β=0.200, p<0.05), family income (β=0.220, p <0.001), and excellence criterion (β=0.271, p <0.01) are major determinants of digital capital. The model also shows that belonging is significantly predicted by age (β=0.087, p <0.05), family income (β=-0.207, p <0.001), and digital capital (β=0.576, p <0.001). Lastly, the findings reveal that the impacts of type of residence (β=0.116, p <0.05), family income (β=0.127, p <0.001), and excellence criterion (β=0.156, p <0.001) on belonging are successfully mediated by digital capital. These results suggest that there are indeed differences in students' abilities to accumulate digital capital and that digital capital enhances the sense of belonging to and together in academic spaces for certain groups.

Telematics and Informatics

This study investigates whether the existence of educational inequalities at the country level affects Internet use. Additionally, we explore the extent to which these impacts depend on countries' economic development levels. We use a logit model and data set of 69 high-and middle-income countries for the period 2005−2015. We find a negative relationship between Internet use and education inequality for the whole sample. The results confirm that, in addition to the level of education and other socioeconomic variables, the distribution of formal education among citizens within a country is also important to explain Internet use. We also obtain that this distribution affects Internet use to a higher extent in middle-income economies in comparison with high-income ones. Unlike the positive influence of educational levels obtained in the academic literature, the existence of within-country educational disparities negatively influences Internet use. This study demonstrates the influence of countries' educational structure in relative terms in explaining Internet use.

Journal of Medical Internet Research, 2020

Background: First detected in Wuhan, China in December 2019, the COVID-19 pandemic stretched the medical system in Wuhan and posed a challenge to the state's risk communication efforts. Timely access to quality health care information during outbreaks of infectious diseases can be effective to curtail the spread of disease and feelings of anxiety. Although existing studies have extended our knowledge about online health information-seeking behavior, processes, and motivations, rarely have the findings been applied to an outbreak. Moreover, there is relatively little recent research on how people in China are using the internet for seeking health information during a pandemic. Objective: The aim of this study is to explore how people in China are using the internet for seeking health information during a pandemic. Drawing on previous research of online health information seeking, this study asks the following research questions: how was the "#COVID-19 Patient Seeking Help" hashtag being used by patients in Wuhan seeking health information on Weibo at the peak of the outbreak? and what kinds of health information were patients in Wuhan seeking on Weibo at the peak of the outbreak? Methods: Using entity identification and textual analysis on 10,908 posts on Weibo, we identified 1496 patients with COVID-19 using "#COVID-19 Patient Seeking Help" and explored their online health information-seeking behavior. Results: The curve of the hashtag posting provided a dynamic picture of public attention to the COVID-19 pandemic. Many patients faced difficulties accessing offline health care services. In general, our findings confirmed that the internet is used by the Chinese public as an important source of health information. The lockdown policy was found to cut off the patients' social support network, preventing them from seeking help from family members. The ability to seek information and help online, especially for those with young children or older adult members during the pandemic. A high proportion of female users were seeking health information and help for their parents or for older adults at home. The most searched information included accessing medical treatment, managing self-quarantine, and offline to online support. Conclusions: Overall, the findings contribute to our understanding of health information-seeking behaviors during an outbreak and highlight the importance of paying attention to the information needs of vulnerable groups and the role social media may play.

Information Polity, 2019

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are being heralded by governments and international organizations as a means of augmenting co-production of public services and a number of major initiatives are being rolled out around the world. In parallel to these activities, a body of scholarly work is emerging that investigates the extent to which ICTs enable, or, pose a barrier to, public service co-production. This paper performs the first systematic review of this emerging literature, and provides insights into the main structural and cultural factors which act as an enabler of, or barrier to, ICT-enabled co-production across government and citizens world-wide.

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 2018

The global emergence of new media and social change have drawn attention to the topic of digital citizenship. Previous literature has examined individuals’ digital citizenship with some determinants of technology use. However, individuals’ level of social media competence (SMC) has not yet been examined in relation to digital citizenship. To increase knowledge of the ingredients that may be important for education programs to improve individuals’ digital citizenship, this study examined SMC and digital citizenship among 772 college students. The results identified that five of the six social media competencies examined were predictors of individuals’ digital citizenship. These findings provided empirical evidence of a relationship between SMC and digital citizenship, which should be considered by researchers and practitioners when formalizing educational programs, developing curricula, and designing pedagogy for improving individuals’ digital citizenship.

European Journal of Ageing, 2019

Filling a gap in our understanding of how senior citizens use information and communication technologies (ICTs), we identified several profiles of technology communication use among European seniors (aged 65+). These profiles include: Digitally immersed communicators, Asynchronous communicators and Phone enjoyers. We outline the importance of a broader distinction, one that surpasses the non-user and user dichotomy, and explores the singularities of the seniors who overcome the challenge of adopting and using ICT. We consider the digital divide concept as a starting point for the theoretical background that we reviewed in order to explain the process through which senior citizens accept and adopt this technology. Analysing data gathered within the Eurobarometer (Standard Eurobarometer 84 Autumn 2015-media use in the European Union. https ://dbk.gesis .org/dbkse arch/sdesc 2.asp?no=6642, 2015), we applied K-Means Cluster analysis and discriminant analysis in order to identify three types of older Internet users. We run the analysis on a sample of 4404 respondents aged between 65 and 99 years. Our results help with increasing the adequacy of Digital Single Market policies for European seniors, as well as with more suitably targeting senior for social care and medical care programmes in the digital environment. Providing suggestions for further research, we argue for an in-depth classification of ICT users, based on characteristics such as gender, education, ethnicity or social class.

Technology, Knowledge and Learning

Digital competence is a quite complex and evolving concept, difficult to be defined by using a single definition. The European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp) provides a consistent framework to guide crosscountry measurements of digital competence. Even though there are many studies on measuring the digital competence level, there is a limited focus on the factors that may influence each DigComp area. The aim of this study is to examine the factors that affect the different areas of digital competence level of students at Vocational Training Institutes. For the purposes of the study, a set of laboratory tests was developed. The study employs parametric tests-t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Bonferroni correction-to examine those factors. According to the findings: (1) 'age' affects the 'Communication and collaboration' area of DigComp; (2) 'educational level' affects 'Digital content creation'; (3) 'specialization' affects 'Communication and collaboration'; (4) 'possession and use of PC' affects 'Information and data literacy', as well as 'Problem solving'; (5) 'possession and use of smartphones' affects 'Communication and collaboration'; and (6) 'Internet use' affects 'Information and data literacy'. The results suggest that educational institutes should update their curricula to achieve a sufficient level of digital competence for their graduates by developing tailored made courses to reinforce the skills related to those areas separately, and employ educational practices to confront influential factors, such as age and use of technology. Employees' training processes should also consider updating reskilling and upskilling programs towards improving the five DigComp areas.

Frontiers in Robotics and AI, 2021

While the privacy implications of social robots have been increasingly discussed and privacy-sensitive robotics is becoming a research field within human–robot interaction, little empirical research has investigated privacy concerns about robots and the effect they have on behavioral intentions. To address this gap, we present the results of an experimental vignette study that includes antecedents from the privacy, robotics, technology adoption, and trust literature. Using linear regression analysis, with the privacy-invasiveness of a fictional but realistic robot as the key manipulation, we show that privacy concerns affect use intention significantly and negatively. Compared with earlier work done through a survey, where we found a robot privacy paradox, the experimental vignette approach allows for a more realistic and tangible assessment of respondents&#39; concerns and behavioral intentions, showing how potential robot users take into account privacy as consideration for future...

Sociedade E Estado, 2021

Esta investigación realizó un estudio comparativo entre tres países muy impactados por el coronavirus a partir del análisis de las reflexiones de docentes sobre la enseñanza virtual universitaria durante la etapa de confinamiento. El estudio, de carácter descriptivo, exploratorio y explicativo, aplicó 196 encuestas, entre marzo y abril de 2020, a docentes de periodismo, comunicación y

AI and ethics, 2024

The digital divide remains an ongoing societal concern, with digital exclusion shown to have a significantly detrimental impact on people's quality of life. Artificial intelligence (AI), the latest wave of digitalisation, is being integrated into the fabric of society at an accelerated rate, the speed of which has prompted ethical concerns. Without addressing the digital divide, the AI revolution risks exacerbating the existing consequences of digital exclusion and limiting the potential for all people to reap the benefits provided by AI. To understand the factors that might contribute to experiences of AI, and how these might be related to digital exclusion, we surveyed a diverse online community sample (N = 303). We created a novel measure of digital confidence capturing individual levels of awareness, familiarity, and sense of competence with digital technology. Results indicated that measures of digital confidence were predicted by structural, behavioural, and psychological differences, such that women, older people, those on lower salaries, people with less digital access, and those with lower digital well-being, reported significantly less digital confidence. Furthermore, digital confidence significantly moderated the relationship between people's experiences with everyday AI technologies and their general attitudes towards AI. This understanding of the spill-over effects of digital exclusion onto experiences of AI is fundamental to the articulation and delivery of inclusive AI.

Universal Access in The Information Society, 2019

The second-level digital divide presents differences in people's capabilities of using information and communication technologies (ICT), especially in older adults. This paper focuses on exploring self-efficacy and anxiety in this group concerning the use of a specific e-service, internet banking service (IBS). Considering the triadic relation proposed in Social Cognitive Theory (SCT), we include in the model of IBS use by older adults personal characteristics, such as self-efficacy, anxiety, perceived usefulness and gender with respect to the e-service chosen. We analyse the effect of perceived risks and social influence on these self-perceptions as environmental factors. This study is centred on a survey of 474 older adults, and tests the structural model proposed using PLS-SEM. The results show that there are important differences between self-efficacy and anxiety when we refer to technology in general compared with a specific e-Service. Furthermore, selfefficacy positively influences the perceived usefulness and the use of IBS. We note an important role of the environment as a booster to overcome the barriers which may appear due to these self-perceptions. Finally, we find influences of older adults' gender in the relationship put forward in the causal model.

Universal Access in the Information Society, 2018

Access to the Internet is becoming increasingly important for all generations. However, a digital gap in Internet use remains between younger and older individuals as well as within the elderly population itself. This study, therefore, aimed to investigate Internet use among elderly Europeans. Representative data across 17 countries from the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) were examined. Analyses were based on the responses of 61,202 Europeans aged ≥ 50. Results highlight that, on average, 49% of all respondents use the Internet. However, the situation varies widely among European countries. Alongside individual indicators, such as age, gender, and social class, results indicate that previous experience with computers during one's time in the workplace is positively associated with Internet use in old age. Furthermore, use of the Internet among an individual's social network positively influences their use. Wider contextual structures such as area of residence and country-specific wealth and communication technology infrastructure also tend to promote Internet use among elderly Europeans. Data from SHARE indicate that private Internet use among older Europeans is driven by personal resources, prior experiences with technology, social salience as well as contextual influences.

European Journal of Communication, 2017

This article thoroughly analyses the Eurostat database on Digital Economy and Society to explore the evolution of the digital skills gaps by gender in the European Union between years 2007 and 2014. It finds that there are slight differences between women and men in the most basic and widespread skills, but they are very significant in the more complex and less generalized tasks. The disparities in this regard have generally decreased but very few points, so they are rather stable over the period. Additionally, those gender gaps are even more marked in the high-educated groups and also relevant among younger cohorts. Contrary to the statements made by the European Commission in its reports, these findings indicate that digital skills gaps by gender are still significant and likely to persist at many levels of society, while ‘ICT specialist’ profiles are becoming more important for future employment opportunities.

Communication and Information Technologies Annual, 2015

Purpose -Research into the explanations of digital inclusion has moved from investigations of skills and usage to tangible outcomes, what we label 19 here as the third-level digital divide. There is a lack of theoretical development about which types of people are most likely to benefit. Understanding 21 how achieving outcomes of internet use is linked to other types of (dis) advantage is one of the most complex aspects of digital inclusion research 23 because very few reliable and valid measures have been developed. In the current study we took a first step toward creating an operational frame-25 work for measuring tangible outcomes of internet use and linking these to the inequalities identified by digital divide research. 27 Methodology/approach -After having proposed a classification for internet outcomes, we assessed these outcomes in a representative sample 29 of the Dutch population. 31 Findings -Our overall conclusion in relation to the more general relationship between offline resources and third-level digital divides is that 33 35

New Media &amp; Society, 2018

For a long time, a common opinion among policy-makers was that the digital divide problem would be solved when a country’s Internet connection rate reaches saturation. However, scholars of the second-level digital divide have concluded that the divides in Internet skills and type of use continue to expand even after physical access is universal. This study—based on an online survey among a representative sample of the Dutch population—indicates that the first-level digital divide remains a problem in one of the richest and most technologically advanced countries in the world. By extending basic physical access combined with material access, the study finds that a diversity in access to devices and peripherals, device-related opportunities, and the ongoing expenses required to maintain the hardware, software, and subscriptions affect existing inequalities related to Internet skills, uses, and outcomes.

Latinoamericana de Estudios Educativos

Colombia has experienced a remarkable economic expansion in recent times, but it is still a country with a high level of inequality. The Gini index evidenced that fact with 51.3% in 2019, which shows that Colombia has one of the highest levels of inequality in Latin America, particularly in certain regions. Furthermore, in 2020, 42.5% of the population lived in poverty, around 21.02 million individuals, and this figure increased by 3.6 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These levels are similar to those recorded 20 years ago (Balakrishnan et al., 2021). Besides, Colombia experienced a peak unemployment rate of 43% during the peak of the pandemic in 2020. By the end of that year, the rate had decreased to 15.9%, but this still represents an increase of 1.3 million people who were unemployed compared to 2019. Colombia has pursued the transformation of its commodity-based economic system to knowledge based assets; therefore, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are esse...