Teenagers’ Use of the Internet – A Case Study of Selected Children in Addis Ababa
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Date
2008-11
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Since its introduction in 1997, the Internet in Ethiopia has been mainly accessed by the elite minority who reside in major cities. But in concerted efforts made by the Ethiopian government and some non-governmental organizations, this is now changing slowly through the provision of the Internet in the ubiquitous Internet cafes, public libraries, schools, government offices, and homes. Among the beneficiaries are Ethiopian middle-class Mission school children in Addis Ababa who have home-based access to the Internet. “Digital Technology: High School Children’s Use of the Internet– A Case Study of Children in some Selected Schools in Addis Ababa with Home-Based Access” tries to examine how and why the children specified above try to make use of the Internet. The participants, comprising 18 grade 11 students, were selected from three of the specified schools. The students participated in focus group and individual in-depth interviews and reported on the following thematic issues: Internet Access, Perceptions about Parents and Teachers, and Internet Usage.
The findings of the study show that the use of the Internet by these children has impacted their social relationships: between these children and those without access, between these children and their parents and their teachers. The children almost exclusively use the Internet at their homes for different reasons: not paying, privacy, and convenience. They usually go online in the evenings when the connection is relatively faster. They actively engage themselves in using the Internet for diverse purposes which made them feel savvier, unlike their parents who tend to use it for work-related purposes. Their purpose-directed activity, which was manifested in many ways, is considered as the basic tenet of the uses-and-gratifications theory and which provides the theoretical framework for this study. It was also evident that these children were attracted to the Internet because they get everything they want all at once - texts, pictures, and sounds. Their teachers do not encourage them to use the Internet as a source of information due to their concern over plagiarism. They abide by some of the rules their parents devise while they reject some others. According to the findings, the children in this study have adopted the Internet relatively late. They only access sites that are produced outside of Ethiopia since local sites are non-existent. Finally, the findings confirmed that the children in this study do not access pornography materials intentionally.
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Children in Addis Ababa