Under the Microscope: Media and Mobile Phone Use among Children and Young People in Portugal

Sara Pereira; Joana Fillol; Daniel Brandão; Mariana Menezes-Neumann

doi:10.14198/MEDCOM.27883

Autores/as

Sara Pereira Universidade do Minho,
Joana Fillol Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (CECS), Universidade do Minho, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9978-3847
Daniel Brandão Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (CECS), Universidade do Minho, Portugal https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6331-0354
Mariana Menezes-Neumann Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Sociedade (CECS), Universidade do Minho, Brasil https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5123-2344

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14198/MEDCOM.27883

Palabras clave:

Jóvenes, medios, niños, teléfonos móviles, usos

Resumen

El consumo de los medios está muy marcado por los teléfonos móviles e Internet, especialmente entre el público más joven. Aunque muchos estudios ya lo han demostrado, es importante considerar constantemente cómo se tejen las relaciones de esta población con los medios y cómo afectan a sus vidas, dados los rápidos cambios en el ecosistema mediático. A partir de un cuestionario en línea aplicado en 26 escuelas a 1,131 estudiantes de 11 a 19 años residentes en Portugal, nos propusimos examinar los medios, en particular los móviles, a un nivel microscópico. Partiendo de variables como el año de escolaridad (y la edad correspondiente) y el sexo, el análisis pretende comprender los usos de los móviles en relación con otros medios y cómo los participantes se clasifican como usuarios de ellos. Los datos demostraron que esta generación está muy implicada con los medios. El dispositivo más importante en sus vidas es el móvil, pero también Internet y redes sociales. El tiempo que pasan con el móvil aumenta con el año de escolaridad y, por tanto, con la edad. Las niñas lo utilizan más que los niños. Hay más encuestados que se consideran usuarios "intensivos" o "dependientes" del móvil que "moderados". Curiosamente, los alumnos de 6º grado (los más jóvenes) son los que más se describen como "usuarios dependientes". La dependencia del móvil queda patente cuando más de la mitad de la muestra afirma que sería el móvil que elegiría si tuviera que emprender un largo viaje y sólo pudiera llevarse un objeto.

Financiación

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia de Portugal

Citas

Abeele, M. (2016). Mobile youth culture: a conceptual development. Mobile Media & Communication, 4(1), 85 –101. https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157915601455

Almeida, A., Delicado, A., Alves, N., & Carvalho, T. (2014). Internet, children and space: Revisiting generational attributes and boundaries. New Media & Society, 17(9), 1436–1453. https://doi.org/10.1177/146144481452829

Alper, M., Vikki, K., and Lynn, C. (2016) Researching children, intersectionality, and diversity in the digital age, Journal of Children and Media, 10:(1), 107-114. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2015.1121886

Castells, M. (2000). The making of network society. economy, society and culture v.1: The information age. Wiley-Blackwell.

Colak, M., Bingol, O., & Dayi, A. (2023). Self-esteem and social media addiction level in adolescents: The mediating role of body image. Indian Journal of Psychiatry, 65(5). https://doi.org/10.4103/indianjpsychiatry.indianjpsychiatry_306_22

De Souza e Silva, A. (2006). From cyber to hybrid: mobile technologies as interfaces of hybrid spaces. Space and Culture 9, 261-278. https://doi.org/10.1177/1206331206289022

European Commission, Eurostat (2022). Individuals - frequency of internet use. Publication Office of the European Union. https://doi.org/10.2908/ISOC_CI_IFP_FU

Farman, J. (2016). Introduction. In J. Farman (Ed.), Foundations of mobile media studies: essential texts on the formation of a field (pp.1-15). Routledge.

Farman, J. (2015). Infrastructures of mobile social media. Social Media + Society, 1(1), 1-2.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2056305115580343

Floridi, L. (Ed.). (2015). The onlife manifesto: Being human in a hyperconnected era. Springer.

Fortunati, L. (2002). The mobile phone: Towards new categories and social relations. Information, Communication & Society, 5(4), 513–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691180208538803

Goggin, G. (2013). Youth culture and mobiles. Mobile Media & Communication, 1(1), 83–88.

https://doi.org/10.1177/2050157912464489

Goggin, G., & Hjorth, L. (edit.). (2008). The question of mobile media in Mobile Technologies. From telecommunications to media. Routledge.

Gui, M., Gerosa, T., Argentin, G., and Losi, L. (2023). Mobile media education as a tool to reduce problematic smartphone use: Results of a randomised impact evaluation. Computers & Education, 194:104705. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compedu.2022.104705.

Gui, M., Fasoli, M., & Carradore, R. (2017). Digital well-being”. Developing a new theoretical tool for media literacy research. Italian Journal of Sociology of Education, 9(1), 155-173.

Horst, H., & Gaspard, L. (2021). Platforms, participation, and place: understanding young people's changing digital media worlds. In L. Green, D. Holloway, K. Stevenson, T. Leaver, & L. Haddon (Eds.). The Routledge Companion to Children and Digital Media (38-47). Retrieved from https://ezproxy.uws.edu.au/login?url= https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351004107

Jenkins, H. (2004). The cultural logic of media convergence. International Journal of Cultural Studies, 7(1), 33-43. https://doi.org/10.1177/1367877904040603

Kasesniemi, E., & Rautiainen, P. (2002). Mobile culture of children and teenagers in Finland. In Katz J. E., Aakhus M. (Eds.). Perpetual contact. Mobile communication private talk, public performance (170–192). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

Lauricella, A., Cingel, D., Blackwell, C., B., Wartella, E. & Conway, A. (2014). The mobile generation: youth and adolescent ownership and use of new media. Communication Research Reports, 31(4), 357-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2014.963221

Livingstone, S., Stoilova, M., & Nandagiri, R. (2019). Children’s data and privacy online: Growing up in a digital age. An evidence review. London: London School of Economics and Political Science. https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/

Livingstone, S., & Haddon, L. (2009). EU Kids Online: Final report. LSE, London: EU Kids Online. (EC Safer Internet Plus Programme Deliverable D6.5)

Lorente, S. (Ed.). (2002). Juventud y teléfonos móviles: algo más que una moda. Revista de Estudios de Juventud, 57, 9-24.

Ling, R. (2007). Children, youth, and mobile communication. Journal of Children and Media, 1(1), 60-67. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482790601005173

Marôco, J. (2021). Análise estatística com o SPSS Statistics (8.ª edição). ReportNumber.

Mascheroni, G., & Ólafsson, K. (2014). Net children go mobile: Cross-national comparisons. Report D3.3. Milano: Educatt. https://netchildrengomobile.eu/

Mun, I. (2024). A longitudinal study on the effects of parental anxiety on mobile game addiction in adolescents: the mediating role of adolescent anxiety and loneliness. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction (2024) 22:560–577. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-022-00890-2

Pereira, S., Fillol, J., & Moura, P. (2021). Teens' online and offline lives: how they are experiencing their sociability. In Lelia Green, Donell Holloway, Kylie Stevenson, Tama Leaver and Leslie Haddon (Eds.). The Routledge Companion to Digital Media and Children (pp. 152-160). Routledge

Pereira, S., Moura, P., Masanet, M-J., Taddeo, G., & Tirocchi, S. (2018). Media uses and production practices: case study with teens from Portugal, Spain and Italy. Comunicación y Sociedad, 33, 89-114. https://doi.org/10.32870/cys.v0i33.7091

Ponte, C., Batista, S., & Baptista R. (2022). Resultados da 1ª série do questionário ySKILLS (2021) – Portugal. KU Leuven, Leuven: ySKILLS. http://www.fcsh.unl.pt

Ponte, C., & Batista, S. (2019). EU Kids Online Portugal. Usos, competências, riscos e mediações da internet reportados por crianças e jovens (9-17 anos). EU Kids Online e NOVA FCSH.

Sheskin, D.J. (2011). Handbook of Parametric and Nonparametric Statistical Procedures. Chapman and Hall/CRC.

Simões, J. A., Ponte, C., Ferreira, E., Doretto, J., & Azevedo, C. (2014). Crianças e meios digitais móveis em Portugal: Resultados nacionais do projeto Net Children Go Mobile. CESNOVA – Centro de Estudos de Sociologia da Universidade Nova de Lisboa. http://www.netchildrengomobile.edu

Togar, E., Antheunis, M., De Leyn, T., & Abeele, M. (2024). “I am not human without my phone”: How the socio-cultural realities of Liberia shape Liberian mobile youth culture. Mobile Media & Communication 12(1), 95-111. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579231197373

Tufekci, Z., & Brashear, M.E. (2014). Are we all equally at home socializing online? Cyberasociality and evidence for an unequal distribution of disdain for digitally mediated sociality. Information, Communication and Society. 17 (4), 486–502. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2014.891634

Thulin, E., & Vilhemson, B. (2019). More at home, more alone? Youth, digital media and the everyday use of time and space. Geoforum 100, 41-50.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.02.010

Thulin, E., & Vilhelmson, B., (2012). The virtualization of urban young people's mobility practices: a time-geographic typology. Geograf. Annaler B Hum. Geogr. 94 (4), 391–403. https://doi.org/10.1111/geob.12005

Valkenburg, P. M., Meier, A., & Beyens, I. (2022). Social media use and its impact on adolescent mental health: An umbrella review of the evidence. Current opinion in Psychology, 44, 58–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.08.017