Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Cyberpsychology

Volume

9

Issue

4

Publisher

Masarykova Univerzita * Fakulta Socialnich Studii

Publication Date

1-1-2015

First Page

1

Last Page

8

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate generational differences in knowledge about interactive technology (i.e., cell phones, social networking, email, video chat) between parents and their young adult children. Parents (n = 555) and young adults (n = 604) residing in the United States provided information about their knowledge in the use of interactive technology. Young adult children also reported their perceptions of their parents’ technological knowledge for the various technologies. Comparisons of young adult self-reported technological knowledge and their parents’ own reports of technological knowledge revealed that young adults were perceived to be much more knowledgeable than their parents (by both the young adults and their parents) regardless of the technology medium. The largest differences between parents and their young adult children were associated with newer interactive technologies, with the largest gap between parent and young adult knowledge in the area of social networking. Perceived differences between parents and their young adult children were smaller among the technologies that have been in use longer (such as such as e-mail), and larger among the newer modes of interactive technology (e.g., video chat).

Download

Share

COinS