Young Australians are not apathetic, deviant, and technology-dependent

Myth 3. Young people are technology dependent

Australians now have broad access to sophisticated information and communication technologies. Many assume that young people primarily benefit from and have become dependent on these technologies. This view sees young people as atomised individuals distanced from society and community building as a direct result of their Internet usage.

Young people use the Internet more often than their elders and for a broader range of reasons. The media has gone on to construct an "us and them", often a "parents versus children", competition. For example, the following newspaper quote has young people living in a different world, enabled by new technologies: "The overwhelming message to teenagers today is that authorities, parents and lawmakers, are impotent in the online world."

What few people recognise is that nearly 40 per cent of 18-34 year olds use the 'net rarely, if ever. The gap between those who do and those who don't use the 'net has been called "the digital divide". The idea of the digital divide is usually applied to different age groups, that is, a divide between parents and their children. But the concept can also be applied within an age group. Factors other than generation divide young people into frequent or rare 'net users. What this implies is that we should worry more about unevenness of access and class-based differences. The digital divide is between the information-rich and the information poor. People living in cities, the highly educated, those who earn more money, white-collar workers are more likely to use both e-mail and the Internet frequently. Young people differ little on what they use e-mail and the Internet for - it is generally for work, for study and to keep in touch with people.

And anyway, maybe we should see technology as liberating for young people - why shouldn't they be able to do something their parents can't? Technology is an important indicator of social change and progress, and we should worry more about whether differential access to the Internet, to mobile phones, or to computers in general, indicates a growing class divide within this generation that will shape future economic opportunities.

Young People and Community

It is time to let go of these myths. Young people have a broad range of economic, social, and political experiences. Harking back to perceptions of a cohesive community of a bygone era is a political exercise that only serves to exclude people. Instead, we need to create inclusive forms of governance that recognise and build upon different ways of making communities. Those in power need to listen to young people more, young people's diverse views and experiences need to be articulated in the media, and intellectual focus should be on structural change rather than individual blame.