how to use this media with “awareness of cause,” in a way which is focused and not casual is a problem which in primis regards adults rather than the young.
According to the ISTAT data of 2005 on the frequency of use of the PC by age and sex, it is possible to affirm that males in particular, and specifically young males, have a better, more natural, and more continuous relationship with the new technolo- gies, and specifically with the PC. This latter group are in fact the most assiduous and frequent users (they use it every day in greater numbers than females), while girls and women seem to congregate at the antipodes of the classification regarding styles of use; that is to say, they use the PC less than males and in a more sporadic manner.
If we analyze the picture presented by ISTAT 2005 (Table 2) vertically and focus our attention on females, we can see that in spite of their scarce familiarity with the new technologies, girls are more open and well disposed towards the digital media compared with women: until the age of 24 they use this medium once or more a week in greater numbers than males, even if this habit weakens as age increases (see Table 2).
Age group
Every day Once or more a week
A few times a month
A few times a year
Does not use the PC
M F M F M F M F M F
3-5 4.4 1.4 8.6 5.4 5.7 5.5 0.9 1.9 74.9 81.6
6-10 9.1 6.2 33.3 37.1 8.0 9.0 1.5 2.2 46.0 43.9
11-14 27.4 14.9 41.6 44.2 4.8 9.0 1.2 3.9 23.5 27.4
15-19 36.5 21.7 35.5 47.9 4.6 6.5 2.2 1.6 20.1 20.6
20-24 38.3 30.6 24.1 30.2 5.1 5.8 1.4 2.6 27.6 27.4
25-34 38.4 32.7 17.7 14.8 3.2 4.0 1.6 2.8 37.3 42.8
35-44 39.6 26.4 13.1 12.5 3.4 4.8 1.6 2.4 40.3 52.4
45-54 32.6 19.2 11.5 9.2 2.8 3.1 1.2 2.0 50.3 64.3
55-59 19.4 9.3 10.0 4.2 2.6 1.2 1.7 1.5 63.4 81.2
60-64 9.6 3.0 7.5 2.1 2.0 1.1 0.8 1.8 77.5 89.8
65-74 4.5 0.6 3.6 0.9 1.1 0.2 0.6 0.4 87.8 94.3
75 + 1.5 0.1 1.0 0.2 0.3 0.3 - - 94.1 96.5
Totale 25.6 16.0 15.3 13.4 3.2 3.5 1.2 1.8 52.3 62.8
Source: elaboration of ISTAT data 2005
Key: for each age group the higher percentage value of use between the sexes has been highlight- ed.
Table 2. Towards the Technoeval age. Use of the Internet by sex and age group (2005)
The scenario which is gradually emerging has led many researchers, among paedago- gists, psychologists, sociologists, and mass-mediologists, to question the cognitive, perceptive, behavioural, and relational metamorphoses that this new symbiotic relationship risks determining. It is not a question of assuming apocalyptic and integrated positions towards this new reality, but rather of reflecting and analyzing in a strategic, synergic, and transversal manner the social effects, the psychological consequences, and the strategies with which to use these instruments to the best in everyday life. The objective could be to predispose conditions so that the new me- dia can become a support for the “do-it-yourself” process in children, transforming them from surfers to planners.
It is worth adding a few reflections to the above on the process of familiarization with the new technologies (Silverstone, 1999) or indeed on the new forms of socialization which derive from their modality of use and from social practices constructed around the act of consumption. According to researchers in the field of digital technologies, the virtual and the real dimension are progressively demolishing the confines which previously delimitated them and are constructing forms of parasocial communication in which the virtual dimension is transformed into a cultural humus and stimulus for sharing and participation in a relationship between equals, nourishing, fortifying, and enriching the exchange of emotions and meanings in face to face interaction. It is as though reciprocal forms of influence and conditioning were activated between the real world and the virtual world.
Among the new technologies, the Internet warrants a separate chapter. According to data collated by ISTAT in 2005, the use of the Web is established among minors, and it increases with age. Also in this case the tendency towards “regular” virtual surfing (every day or almost), is prevalently male. If girls do not use the PC, they will not as a rule use Internet. In fact, from the ISTAT data of 2005 on the frequency of use of Internet by age group and sex it again emerges that the highest percentage of those who do not use Internet are predominantly female, regardless of age (see Table 3). Starting from the picture which has just been delineated, if we wish to focus our attention on females and identify a profile of a “Web surfer” among those few who relate to the new technologies, this would be of a girl between 6 and 24 years old who surfs a few times a month more than males, even if the girls lose this habit progressively, again with age.
It is certain that the pragmatism implicit in the use of the new technologies, the protagonism in the processes of construction of knowledge, the perceptive, cogni- tive, and emotional immersion in virtual reality, and the simulation of experiences separated from the physicality of the acts, represent determining characteristics which help to intensify the interaction of the young with these technologies. This union which was already presumed in the 1990s, when the technological explosion was merely an intuition and a wager for the future, has today been transformed into a condition sine qua non which characterizes the experience of the young, “the best teachers of communicative technologies” (Tirocchi et al., 2002). Restricting
the analysis of the new media to the PC and Internet, as some national institutes of research such as ISTAT still do today, is however reductive because it does not allow for the question of technological convergence, of the hybridization of languages and meanings which satisfy the desire for eclecticism, explorativity, and protago- nism of the subject. The terminological choice of “digital media” itself with which to describe the new new-medial world lets us understand a reality which is more complex and articulated than the Internet, which also embraces the new frontiers of TV, the mobile phone, the radio, or indeed of those generalist media which, to respond to the activity of exploration and manipulation of the technological con- tents of the subjects according to the logic of constructivism, develop new forms of interaction and of action.
The dimension of the community, the new prospective of dialogue among equals, the different opportunities for socialization, the perception of an expressive freedom behind the mask of an identity which could be fictitious, as well as the possibility of
Classi di età
Tutti i giorni Una o più volte a settimana
Qualche volta al mese
Qualche volta all’anno
Non usano Internet
M F M F M F M F M F
3-5 - - - - - - - - - -
6-10 1.3 0.9 5.4 6.5 4.0 4.1 2.0 1.9 84.0 84.8
11-14 7.1 4.2 22.8 21.1 10.9 11.3 6.2 4.6 52.7 57.9
15-19 18.0 9.4 34.7 38.5 9.4 11.5 3.5 3.6 32.5 32.6
20-24 25.2 15.4 27.8 40.8 8.1 10.0 2.5 4.4 32.9 33.9
25-34 24.6 18.2 21.1 19.5 5.1 7.1 3.0 2.7 43.1 49.4
35-44 22.6 12.6 19.6 14.6 5.0 6.2 2.3 3.5 48.2 61.4
45-54 16.6 8.7 15.9 9.4 5.2 4.5 2.2 2.6 58.1 71.9
55-59 9.8 4.1 11.3 4.6 4.2 2.0 2.0 0.8 69.3 84.4
60-64 5.3 1.4 7.6 2.0 1.7 1.0 1.3 1.6 80.9 91.0
65-74 2.4 0.3 2.9 0.5 1.3 0.3 0.6 0.1 90.0 94.6
75 + 0.6 0.0 1.1 0.0 0.2 0.2 0.2 - 93.8 96.4
Totale 14.5 7.9 15.7 12.1 4.7 4.7 2.2 2.2 60.2 70.2
Source: elaboration of data ISTAT 2005
Key: for each age group the higher percentage value of use between the sexes has been highlight- ed.
Table 3. Towards the Technoeval Age. Use of the Internet by sex and age group(2005)
being open to change without necessarily destabilizing oneself, all the above represent keys of interpretation, perhaps over-optimistic, which help to edify a relationship of reciprocal trust between the young and the new communicative technologies The experience of reaffirmation of the self and of the construction or search for an identity are at the basis of every educational process, whether real or virtual, for the young and for many behavioural orientations with regard to the technological possibilities of today. In the case of the Internet, the awareness of the virtuality of the real and the perception of a dimension which is parallel to the tangible one, stimulate the individual to expose him or herself to risk, in the awareness that ex- periences lived through the screen do not constitute real life.