Adolescents and their Use of Interactive Communication

on a broad range of online activities, such as looking for information for schoolwork, sending and receiving messages in instant messaging applications, accessing social media platforms, playing games and watching videos on platforms such as YouTube (Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014).

As we mentioned previously, the use of ICT enables interactive communication. This sort of communication can take place through instant messaging, e-mail, blogs, social networking, and sites for sharing photos and videos (Subrahmanyam & Greenfiel, 2008), and it allows adolescents to connect with their friends or family members regardless of physical distance (Favotto et al., 2017). Young people use it almost daily for various purposes, such as leisure, relationships with friends or family and educational purposes.

According to Valkenburg and Peter (2011), online communication is so attractive to them because it enhances the controllability of self-presentation and self- disclosure due to its anonymity, asynchrony, and accessibility. First, asynchrony allows adolescents to change and reflect on what they write before they send their messages. Secondly, online anonymity may lead to less concern about their physical appearance. Thirdly, accessibility allows adolescents to interact with peers whom they may not have seen for a long time or whom they cannot meet easily in their lives.

Therefore, adolescents use online communication to reinforce existing relationships, both friendships and romantic relationships, and to build new friendships with strangers (Subrahmanyam & Greenfiel, 2008). In addition, the fact that online communication is fast-paced and less expensive than traditional technologies has promoted its adoption by teens (Bryant, Sanders-Jackson, & Smallwood, 2006).

Most adolescents use some form of online communication daily. In fact, it has become a “social norm among groups of young people, even in early adolescence”

(Favotto et al., 2017, p. 7). Consequently, seven in ten European children aged 9-16 have visited a social networking profile in the past month, and six in ten have used

instant messaging (Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014). Similarly, three in four UK (12-15 years old) and American (13-17 years old) adolescents have a profile on a social media site (Lenhart, 2015; Ofcom, 2017). As with the general population, Facebook is reported as the most used platform by adolescents. However, the use of social media is diversifying (Lenhart, 2015; Mascheroni & Ólafsson, 2014; Ofcom, 2017) and other common social media sites among young people are Snapchat and Instagram.

In conclusion, these data demonstrate the relevance that ICT has on adolescents’ lives. As we shall see, the Internet and digital devices, such as smartphones, have made an impact on aspects such as relationships, which are also developed using social media and instant messaging platforms; learning activities, which can be complemented by looking for information online; and entertainment, since adolescents spend most of their leisure time surfing the Internet or watching videos online.

In the case of Spain, children and young people have also increased their use of digital technologies in the last few years. In 2001, 26 percent of Spanish children (aged 6-16) used the Internet, with a daily average of 4 minutes (Beentjes et al., 2001).

As we can see in Figure 5, the proportion of Spanish children (aged 4-13) that had

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Figure 5. Internet penetration rate among Spanish children aged 4-13 years Adapted from AIMC (2017)

access to the Internet increased to 57.4 percent in 2012 (AIMC, 2012) and 64.7 percent in 2017 (AIMC, 2017).

Rates increase in the case of older adolescents. As we can see in Figure 6, the percentage of Spanish adolescents that use the Internet is close to 100 per cent. Nearly all adolescents use the Internet, use computers and have mobile phones (INE, 2017).

Therefore, the older the minor, the more frequent the use of ICT. For instance, in the case of 10 year old children, one in four children have their own mobile phone, but for 14 year old adolescents, the proportion rises to nine in ten adolescents (INE, 2017).

The more important reasons for using the Internet among Spanish adolescents are related to interactive communication: using instant messaging and accessing social media sites (Golpe Ferreiro et al., 2017). As happens in other countries, Facebook is the most used social media site among adolescents, followed by Instagram and Twitter (Garmendia, Jiménez, Casado, & Mascheroni, 2016). More than nine in ten Spanish adolescents aged 12-17 use instant messaging services, mainly WhatsApp, and have a social media profile. Moreover, six in ten adolescents access social media

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12 years old 13 years old 14 years old 15 years old Figure 6. Proportion of Spanish adolescents (aged 12-15) using ITC Adapted from INE (2017)

platforms daily (Golpe Ferreiro et al., 2017). Accordingly, the Internet, social media sites and instant messaging services play an important role in adolescents’ lives.

Given all these data, we can confirm that young people have a pioneering role in the use of ITC. This can also be demonstrated by the fact that Spanish households with children under the age of 16 have more technological equipment than households without children (see Figure 7).

In conclusion, information and communication technology is embedded in every aspect of our society, especially in the case of adolescents. Young people have completely integrated the Internet, smartphones, social media sites and instant messaging services into their daily routines.