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Digital Media Use: Differences and Inequalities in Relation to Class and Age

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  • Simeon Yates
  • John Kirby
  • Eleanor Lockley

Abstract

This paper takes a national perspective on issues of digital media use. The paper draws upon the OfCom Media Literacy 2013 survey to explore how digital media use varies in regard to two major social variables – class and age. Both class and age feature predominantly in UK policy on digital access and use. Class and age are invoked as either things that create barriers to access or as issues to be addressed and managed through using digital media. Despite the large body of work on the ‘digital divide’ there is a more limited literature that explicitly addresses class. The paper seeks to act as an empirical reference point for the development of further debate around the links between class and digital media use. The paper presents a factor analysis of the OfCom data that identifies five main areas of digital media use. These five factors are then subjected to a multiple analysis of variance to explore the effects across, between and within age and class categories. A cluster analysis based on the factors identifies seven main ‘User Types’ that are again compared across class and age. The paper finds that class and age act relatively independently as predicators of digital media use and neither compound nor mitigate each other's effects. Importantly the paper notes that the greatest levels and breadth of Internet use can be found in NRS social class groups AB and to an extent C1. In contrast the greatest levels of non-use and limited use can be found in NRS social class groups DE. In conclusion the paper notes that age still acts as the major explanatory variable for overall use and some specific types of use, but that class also independently acts to explain patterns of digital media use. As a result any simplistic policy expectations that digital access and use issues will become less relevant as age demographics change have to be questioned.

Suggested Citation

  • Simeon Yates & John Kirby & Eleanor Lockley, 2015. "Digital Media Use: Differences and Inequalities in Relation to Class and Age," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 20(4), pages 71-91, November.
  • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:20:y:2015:i:4:p:71-91
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.3751
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Hargittai, Eszter, 1999. "Weaving the Western Web: explaining differences in Internet connectivity among OECD countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 23(10-11), pages 701-718, November.
    2. Wareham, Jonathan & Levy, Armando & Shi, Wei, 0. "Wireless diffusion and mobile computing: implications for the digital divide," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(5-6), pages 439-457, June.
    3. Francis Green & Alan Felstead & Duncan Gallie & Ying Zhou, 2007. "Computers and pay," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 201(1), pages 63-75, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Carmi, Elinor & Yates, Simeon J. & Lockley, Eleanor & Pawluczuk, Alicja, 2020. "Data citizenship: Rethinking data literacy in the age of disinformation, misinformation, and malinformation," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 9(2), pages 1-22.
    2. Sébastien Goudeau & Camille Sanrey & Arnaud Stanczak & Antony Manstead & Céline Darnon, 2021. "Why lockdown and distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are likely to increase the social class achievement gap," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 5(10), pages 1273-1281, October.
    3. Maximilian Weber & Birgit Becker, 2019. "Browsing the Web for School: Social Inequality in Adolescents’ School-Related Use of the Internet," SAGE Open, , vol. 9(2), pages 21582440198, June.
    4. Faure, Laura & Vendramin, Patricia & Schurmans, Dana, 2020. "A situated approach to digital exclusion based on life courses," Internet Policy Review: Journal on Internet Regulation, Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG), Berlin, vol. 9(2), pages 1-18.
    5. Cecilia Andersson & Olof Sundin, 2024. "The elusive search engine: How search engine use is reflected in survey reports," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 75(5), pages 613-624, May.

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