De las TIC a las TRIC: Estudio sobre el uso de las TIC y la brecha digital entre adultos y adolescentes en España

This article provides the most significant findings of the AUSTICA project (National R + D + i 2010-2013), that studies the use of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) and the effects of the digital divide among adults and adolescents both in school and in the household. Its main objective is to analyze the different cultural trends (or habits) among digital "natives" (teens) and digital "immigrants" (parents and teachers). The research, carried out by fourteen researchers from five different Spanish universities, is based on the laborious process of qualitative analysis. The study's results show that the digital divide between generations does exist, but that the concepts of digital divide and ICT are often used very superficially, because they also affect the way users relate to each other (ICRT). While young users employ these technologies within informal contexts (social networks), adults tend to use them more in their professional environment. Adults face a change in the cultural paradigm in which an inversion of the conventional educational process occurs. Teenagers have more practical skills, integrating online environments into their everyday life, while adults regard them as being a "world apart". Hence, the digital divide between young users and adults is primarily sociocultural.