Famílias conectadas : um estudo do consumo de tecnologia das gerações Y e Z em Porto Alegre

Abstract

The first representatives of Generation Y are turning 40 in 2020 and may have children of school age: Generation Z. Aged between 9 and 15 years old, they were born with the availability of mobile technologies, were the first to be literate with tablets and smartphones and do not separate offline from online. His parents followed the evolution of digital media over the past 20 years and have been on social media for almost a decade. Investigating the impact of this technological context on the relations between these two Generations is the focus of this study, which analyzes the consumption of technology in the daily lives of Generation Z and the influences of parents in this process. To achieve this goal, the theoretical framework includes a bibliographic review with concepts related to the communication ecosystem mediated by technology, the profile of the Generations and how consumption and parental mediations take place. The methodology starts with a larger sample, with the application of an online questionnaire for parents in Porto Alegre and the Metropolitan Region, as a way of empirical approximation with the object of studies. In the second stage, the analysis was deepened based on indepth interviews with parents and children. From these dialogues, four categories of analysis emerge: technology presence; uses of digital social networks; influences and controls; digital literacy. Among the results, we can see the centrality of the smartphone in the routine and the constant connection through WhatsApp. However, the main interest is not the technology itself, but the people and relationships to which the technological interface allows access. Still, it is concluded that parents are not clear on how they should mediate this process, although they seek alternatives and are concerned with the time of use and the relationships established by their children on the Internet.