"I have my cell phone in my pocket all day": what do young people do with digital technologies?

Abstract

In a global scenario, where digital technologies have an increasing presence, this article proposes an analysis of the experiences of young people from a secondary school in the province of Córdoba -Argentina-with digital technologies. Using a phenomenological qualitative method, and recovering the voices of young people as protagonists in the reconstruction of their own experience, we analyse their first accesses to technologies, the practices of their daily life that were given new meaning, and current experiences, highlighting the predominating uses. It is concluded that, although young people were born in a digital ecosystem, there are marked differences between the sample of this article and the ideal type of young people described in the theoretical framework, especially in terms of the inequality of access and the conditions of use of devices. In addition, it is shown that despite belonging to the same generation, young people exhibit vastly different experiences among them, suggesting that age cannotbe the only variable that explains how youth and technology are linked.