Le trasformazioni della disuguaglianza digitale tra gli adolescenti: evidenze da tre indagini nel Nord Italia

Abstract

Based on unique datasets collected by the author in three northern italian regions’ schools (˜8000 students), the article describes how youth’s family background currently relates to their Internet use practices. The results show that nowadays the only indicators that show a linear relationship with social stratification are the use of the Internet for in-depth information searching and the breadth of Internet uses carried out frequently. Other variables such as the use of social networking sites, production of online content, gaming and the time spent online seem to have become widespread irrespectively of young people’s social origins. A third set of variables, concerning how pervasive the use of one’s smartphone is in social and personal life, shows an inverse relationship with social stratification: those that are more advantaged show a lower pervasiveness. Therefore, today the digital profile of students coming from disadvantaged backgrounds is characterized by a low level of information searching, low breadth of Internet uses and high pervasivity of mobile devices. On the one hand, this poses a challenge to traditional digital inequality theory; on the other, it calls for critical education interventions to prevent addictive behaviours.