Can Young People Use the Internet? Notes and Observations

Abstract

Today the young generation is called digital natives or born with a computer mouse in their hands. Young people use the Internet extensively, mainly through their smartphones. They surf the Internet, where they can spend averagely up to 2–3 hours daily. A lot of teenagers can stay online for most of the day, which some might remain there day and night. The problem with the overuse of the Internet affects not only children and teenagers but also older people like students. It might be assumed that adolescences should not have any trouble with using the Internet, nevertheless the researches verify that the conclusion. Youth are generally passive recipients of information, where the truly creative use of modern technologies is rather a marginal phenomenon. However, students prefer to use the network to create content, search and evaluate the reliability of the information. They set up blogs, administer websites, discuss on the Internet forum and exploit the Internet in the widely understood process of learning. Despite these facts, there still can be found people among them, who call themselves passive consumers.