@inproceedings{920514,
  abstract     = {{Introduction - This paper’s main aim is to further explore youth’s diversified internet use and its implications for the discourse on the digital divide. 

A closer look at previous research shows, besides an unequal distribution of Internet access, a differentiated use within different groups of youth. This diversity can be attributed to a complex interplay between age, gender, schooling, social-economic status, origin and region (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007; Rice, 2002). 

In the dominant discourse the discussion of the digital divide coincides with the connotations researchers give to particular forms of internet use. This implicates that certain actions are perceived to be “better” than others. For example, Hargittai & Hinnant (2008) focus on capital enhancing activities. One of their conclusions is that higher educated people perform activities that are socially more preferable. 

The particular social context of an individual also plays a role in the internet use next to the traditional factors like age, gender, schooling and SES. Youth and internet are heavily intertwined. As McMillan & Morrison (2006) argue, the internet has become an integral part of young people’s lifeworld. On no account we can reduce the relation between the internet and the socialisation of young people to a linear, univocal relation. Nevertheless, few researches focus on the question how the internet contributes in differentiated ways to the socialisation of different young people. Because of this interplay of the social context and internet use we searched for extra psychosocial factors in our survey which correlate with internet use. Factors like self-esteem, the negative picture of the future, parental follow-up and support, friendship and fear of crime seemed to be significantly correlated. These variables are based on previous scales (YRP, 2007) and will be annexed to the paper. Other scholars already revealed some of the same relationships between children’s media use and some psychosocial elements (Comer, Furr, Beidas, Babyar, & Kendall, 2008; Heim, Brandtzaeg, Kaare, Endestad, & Torgersen, 2007). Our research data contribute to this picture.

Method – In 2005-2006 we conducted a large postal survey in Flanders which is a wealthy region in northern Belgium with an internet penetration grade of 65%. The data presented in this paper are extracted from an extensive research on several youth topics, in which internet use was one of the topics. 

Results – The results will be presented in two parts. First we conducted a factor analysis with 23 different internet actions, like visiting particular sites, SNS, online gaming,… This resulted in four different dimensions of use: entertainment, information, communication and commercial use. 
Secondly, multiple regression analyses are conducted with the different above mentioned dimensions of use as dependent variables and the traditional independent variables as gender, age, educational level and SES together with the psychosocial variables.

Discussion –The purpose of our discussion is twofold. Firstly, we look at the implications of our research for the dominant discourse on the digital divide. We propose a wider view on internet use which is to some extent contradictory to the dominant discourse. For example, certain actions with a negative connotation in the dominant discourse could have certain advantages on socialisation for certain groups of young people (e.g. widening the social network through online gaming). 

Secondly, we reflect on the relationship between the diversity of internet use and the psychosocial factors. Some of these relations could help us to get a better insight into the interplay between the youth’s lifeworld and the internet use (e.g. the relationship between fear of crime and informational internet use). Nevertheless we urge for some extra qualitative research to further explore the relationship between the use and the psychosocial factors.}},
  author       = {{Boonaert, Tom and Vettenburg, Nicole}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  location     = {{Milwaukee}},
  title        = {{Youth’s internet use: a social pedagogical approach}},
  year         = {{2009}},
}