"But my clients don't use technology!" Challenging myths
regarding diverse young people's use of information communication
technology
Michelle Blanchard, PhD Candidate, Orygen Youth Health
Research Centre, Centre for Youth Mental Health, University of
Melbourne & Senior Research Officer, Inspire
Foundation
Four years ago, the Inspire Foundation was funded by VicHealth
(www.vichealth.vic.gov.au) to research the
potential to use information communication technology to promote
social and civic participation for young people experiencing
social, cultural or economic marginalisation. Our first step
was to do some mixed methods research with diverse young
Victorians, 97 in total, to explore how they currently used
information communication technology. We also interviewed 22
youth service providers. Going into the project, and based on
our own experiences working directly with a diverse range of young
people, my colleagues and I hypothesised that the young people we
spoke to would have significantly limited access to information
communication technology (predominately mobile phones and the
internet.
Our participants came from a diverse range of backgrounds and
included young people who, for a variety of reasons, were at
greater risk of mental health difficulties. Recruited
from face to face youth services, they included young people who
were: indigenous, culturally or linguistically diverse, same-sex
attracted, living with a disability or chronic illness, at risk of
homelessness or from low socio-economic backgrounds.
Speaking with youth service providers we routinely heard that
their clients had limited access to technology, would not use it to
seek help or support and would find it difficult to engage with
technology based programs. The reasons they cited for this
included: limited income to spend on technology and access, limited
literacy skills and other life priorities.
To our surprise, we found that all, bar three, of the
participants in the study had access to the internet. A
similar number had access to mobile phones. The young
people we spoke to used the internet regular to complete homework,
keep in touch with friends and play games. What we did find
was that these young people often experienced challenges with the
quality of their connection to the internet. They were more
likely to be using a dial up connection and while 42% had access to
the internet at home, others relied on public internet connections
(such as libraries) or their friends to secure access. Having
sufficient phone credit was an issue for some, but others were
extremely savvy in their use of mobile phones, using different
phone plans at different times of the day to maximise value.
This project highlighted for us, what a colleague recently
termed, a 'digital disconnect' between how these young people were
using technology and how those who cared for them understood their
technology use. Assumptions that all young people experiencing
marginalisation would not have access to technology simply did not
hold true. Similarly, the activities they undertook online
did not differ significantly from other groups of young people,
although we found that the social networking sites Bebo (www.bebo.com) and Hi5 (www.hi5.com) were utilised by some
participants, rather than the popular MySpace (www.myspace.com) and Facebook (www.facebook.com) sites.
Through reviewing these results and the e-health literature, we
concluded that provided that quality access to technology could be
provided, there is indeed potential to use information
communication technology to engage with and promote positive mental
health for young people experiencing social, cultural or economic
marginalisation.
You can read more about this study and access a report of our
findings here (http://www.inspire.org.au/what-we-do-actnow-bridging-the-digital-divide-youth-action-project.html)
Share your experiences
Sharing your experiences of using technology in your practice
will help others navigate this emerging practice. Have you
used information communication technology with young people from
diverse social and cultural backgrounds? Are there any
technologies you've found more or less effective? Let us
know.