Use of ICT in chilean university students: Approach from emerging adulthood

Abstract

Emerging adulthood (EA) is a stage of development in which, having finished adolescence, the assumption of adulthood is postponed. There is evidence that the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can be related to the tasks of the EA. Using the EA approach, the present quantitative study aimed to characterize the use of ICT in emerging adults, all students of Chilean universities, and examine the effect of sex, socioeconomic status and age in such use. An intentional sample of 1,469 students answered a questionnaire that investigated different aspects of the experience with ICT. The results show that, compared to the general population, students access more to the computer and use ICT more frequently for a set of activities. In the time of daily use of ICT an effect of sex was observed but not of socioeconomic level nor of age. In addition, four types of ICT use were identified: communicative, informative, hedonistic and utilitarian. Men make greater hedonistic use and less utilitarian use than women. The socioeconomic level is related to the informative and hedonistic use; on the other hand, age is associated with communicative and informative use.