+ Digitales --- - Digital Perfil Jóvenes online Jóvenes potencial-mente online Jóvenesoffline
% de jóvenes respecto el total 67,6% 21,8% 10,6%
Tipología A B C D E
% de jóvenes respecto el total 21,7% 45,9% 12,6% 9,2% 10,6%
X X X X 0
Acostumbran a tener
ordenador X X X 0 0
Acostumbran a intervenir
en la compra de nTIC X 0 - 0
-Están familiarizados con
el mundo virtual X X 0 0 0
Leyenda
X La presencia de esta característica es significativa en el perfil 0 La NO presencia de esta característica es significativa en el perfil
- Ni la presencia ni la NO presencia de esta característica és significativa en el perfil
Perfil mayoritario entre los jóvenes
Acostumbran a tener móvil
Studies on consumer habits of young people in Catalonia
Catalonia School of Consumer Affairs Catalan Consumer Agency
The Catalan Consumer Agency was established in 2004, whose mission is to defend consumer rights and obligations. This power is set forth in Article 123 of the Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia which affords the Catalan Govern-ment exclusive power in the field of consumption.
In accordance with the Consumer Code of Catalonia, the Catalan Govern-ment is obliged to properly inform and deal with consumers, as well as to edu-cate and train them in consumer affairs. For this reason, a Permanent Centre for Consumer Education was set up within the Catalan Consumer Agency, i.e. the Catalan School of Consumer Affairs.
To fulfil the obligations stipulated by the Consumer Code and to achieve the objectives set forth in the law constituting the Catalan Consumer Agency as regards consumer protection, various tools and instruments are employed. This includes the study of the socioeconomic and cultural reality of Catalonia and consumer consumption habits.
Therefore, the Catalan Consumer School regularly conducts studies on the consumption habits of young people in Catalonia.
We hereby present the study “Young People, New Communication and Infor-mation Technologies and Internet Access”. It seeks to gain an in-depth insight into how young people interact with new technologies and the presence of said technologies in their lives in order to draw conclusions on the extent of the presence of technology in the daily consumption of Catalan families. These types of studies afford us a closer view of the reality of our young people and, thereby, allow us to adapt the content of the educational activities carried out by the Catalan Consumer Agency in order to educate young people in consumer affairs and gain a more in-depth understanding of their concerns, habits and lifestyles. It is sought to ensure that the training and awareness-raising actions carried out by the authorities in this field are the most conduci-ve to achieving the objecticonduci-ves sought, and therefore, to making young Catalan people become responsible, aware and critical consumers, well acquainted with their rights and obligations and with market mechanisms.
New Information and Communication Technologies (nICT) have opened up a world of possibilities for society – new ways of communicating, searching for and finding information, shopping, listening to music, spending time, etc. – to the extent that they have become essential in our day-to-day lives, par-ticularly in the lives of teenagers.
Some authors point out that the use of new technologies is creating a ge-neration gap between young people and adults* since the two groups ap-proach new technologies differently. While adults tend to seek the utility of the Internet and use it for a specific purpose (bank transactions, searches for information, purchases, etc.), young people approach it in a more global manner and naturally incorporate it in their lives: they live with the Internet, chatting, listening to music, communicating with each other, etc**. The fact that there are two forms of living with new technologies calls for the meeting of adults and young people to share different views and learn from one anot-her in order to promote and advance joint actions around nICT***.
In this context, it is important to have in-depth knowledge of young peoples’ experience with new technologies to ascertain their attitude towards this phenomenon, which is new for adults but everyday for young people. Therefore, “Young People, New Communication and Information Techno-logies and Internet Access” is a study that aims to explore consumption habits among Catalan young people so as to obtain comparative data that allows the Catalan Consumer Agency to design awareness-raising policies and to formulate proposals for educational consumer affairs workshops wit-hin the framework of the Catalan School of Consumer Affairs.
* Feixa, C. (2001) La generació @. La joventut del segle XXI. Secreteraria General de Joventut. Barcelona.
** INTECO (2009). Estudio sobre hábitos seguros en el uso de las TIC por niños y adolescentes y e-confianza de sus padres. Observatorio de la Seguridad de la Información.
*** Figuer, C; Malo,S; Bertran, I (2010) Cambios en las Relaciones y Satisfacciones Intergeneracionales Asociados al Uso de las TICs. Intervención
Psicosocial. Vol. 19, n.° 1, Págs. 27-39. Madrid.
According to the Observatory for Cybersociety*, the most common and widely disseminated nICT are mobile phones, the Internet and computers. They also constitute the object of study of this research.
The study is based on the following questions:
• What presence do mobile phones and computers have in the lives of young people?
• What role do young people play in the purchase of mobile phones and computers?
• How often are mobile phones and computers updated?
• What criteria would be employed when purchasing a mobile phone or computer?
• Which websites do they visit on a daily basis? • Do young people buy online?
• Do young people get music from the Internet?
• Can profiles of young people be defined according to their relationship with nICT and Internet access?
The last question will afford us an overview of the findings of the entire study, since the data will be classified under groups that pinpoint trends that are conducive to identifying the different profiles of young people towards this issue.
This document is an informative summary of the most relevant findings of a broader research study. The entire study can be viewed on www. consum.cat.
This research was carried out within the framework of the Catalan School of Consumer Affairs (ECC) as a permanent consumer education centre (www.consum.cat).
The Catalan Consumer Agency (ACC) is an autonomous body of the Cata-lan Government whose overarching goal is to safeguard the rights of the consumers of goods and products and service users.
Noteworthy among the ACC’s objectives are training, informing and edu-cating consumers. For this reason, the Catalan School of Consumer Af-fairs (ECC) was established in 2003.
The ECC is a free public service that seeks to promote and strengthen the presence of consumer education within the sphere of Catalan educa-tion. Its line of action is committed to the combination of teaching, meth-odological innovation and research concerning the consumption habits of Catalan young people.
Over the course of its operation, the ECC has defined and consolidated a variety of educational activities and its own means of understanding con-sumer education that shapes the identity of the ECC. In this context, it offers a comprehensive space in which to carry out activities that allow students to reflect upon and delve further into issues related to everyday acts of consumption. The ECC’s educational activities comprise a series of activities for Primary, Secondary, A-Level Studies, Vocational Training and Special Education.
Committed to geographical equality, the ECC operates two parallel and complementary centres: the Central Office in Barcelona and the Territorial Office which moves around Catalonia.
Consumption is tangible in almost every act we perform on a daily basis: when we wash our faces, when we make a phone call, when we switch on the light, etc. As a result, not only are political and legislative measures that protect consumer rights and obligations required, but education is also essential so that citizens are aware of their status as consumers, so that they are familiar with their rights and obligations.
Educating 21st-century consumers involves setting the challenge of fos-tering the training of critical, active and responsible citizens:
• Critical, in order to confront acts of consumption with the capac-ity to analyse, form an opinion and compare views constructively. • Active, because in a democratic society, people training must be
oriented towards interacting with the environment. From this per-spective, an act of consumption is a form of acting that comprises different stages: from deciding there is a need and choosing a product to the time of use and maintenance of the purchased product.
• Responsible, in order to shape their own model of consumption, capable of assuming their decisions, being aware of the conse-quences of their actions on the environment and of measuring their impact. A consumer with a global vision is able to understand that acts of consumption have facets that evolve over time and space and, therefore, they must be carefully thought out.