Internet usage and digital divide among Spanish university students

Abstract

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have altered and became an important part of habits and customs within all social environments. This is no less true for Universities. Since the mid 90s, the spreading of the Internet has caused changes in all aspects of University life. The ways in which we learn, teach, research, read and communicate have all changed; and of course, ICTs have also made accessing knowledge and information easier. In this sense, the main aim of this study was to gain a full understanding of the habits and uses (Teo, 2001) of university students as regards ICTs, with particular emphasis on their use of the Internet. The results of this study were obtained through an investigation between the students of the University of Alicante (Spain) during 2005. The research technique used to obtain data were an electronic survey, and the final sample consisted of 5.169 cases, from a population of 29.657 students. The results show that the effects of the digital divide are minimal within the university population and the digital illiteracy amongst students is minimal but in spite of that the majority of users only display passive uses of the Internet. A more plausible reason of these results would seem to be that large multinationals aim to control an open space such as the Internet, establishing their own use agenda and indicating how the Internet should be used and with which content.