Benefits and drawbacks of adolescent ICT use: the students’ point of view

<p>This paper aims at understanding the perception of secondary school students, about possibilities and problems from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) use, taking into account their out-of-school experience. The article consists in a qualitative study, through the in-depth interview technique. Participants were twenty adolescents in the second level of Secondary School, from Aragón, belonging to both private and state schools. The findings show a kind of use mainly instrumental, focused on peer groups, with a communicative purpose, centered in mobile phone. They appreciate ICT as an information source for schoolwork; and, of course, for entertainment. Regarding daily drawbacks, wasting their time is the most referred, along with an excessive dependence and insecurity. In conclusion, not only that ambivalence, between a general positive view and their conscience and necessity of a moderate and responsible way of using, recovers the role of guidance from family and school, but also reinforces it in order to a meaningful learning of ICT.