Adolescents from low-income sectors: the challenge of studying in a time of digital environments

Abstract

This paper is about practices and perceptions regarding the study of adolescents from low-income sectors in the City of Buenos Aires. The methodology consisted of 26 in-depth interviews with low-income adolescents and participant observations in twenty cybercafés of the South Area of the City of Buenos Aires. Among the findings, these students highlight that ICTs allow them to handle information in a more agile and entertaining way, more consistent with their daily uses. However, doing research on school content is what students do the least, since adolescents use technology mainly for communicative, social and recreational ends. These adolescents recognise some disadvantages in using ICTs to study: the unreliable information, the difficulty to distinguish which topics related to school content are more appropriate and the disruptive and continuous use of social networks. In this sense, these adolescents tend to have more problems in benefitting from ICTs for academic purposes than other adolescents. While communication and recreational skills tend to be similar, the evaluation of different sources of information and the skill to make complex searches online are usually more strongly developed in adolescents of middle and high-income households. In conclusion, we think it is necessary to take these problems into consideration in the social sciences research of the area and besides when implementing digital literacy programs.