Generational Gaps and Paradoxes Regarding Electricity Consumption and Saving

Abstract

In a time of economic crisis the need to adopt energy conservation practices comes to the fore. It is helpful to evaluate the role of young people as both consumers and potential agents of change bridging the gap between school and family to encourage lower household energy consumption. Based on two surveys of parents and students of a secondary school in Lisbon, plus in-depth interviews with parents, this article analyzes the complexity of this challenge, highlighting adults' perceptions of their children's contribution to energy saving. Results show that parents see young people as major energy consumers. Young people's engagement with electronic equipment as essential components of their lifestyles and their belief in technology as a solution to energy problems thwart them from being promoters of energy saving. In this context of scarcity, parents try to protect their children's well-being and opportunities in life by accepting their children's unrestricted energy use.

Mobile phones, batteries and power consumption: An analysis of social practices in Portugal

“…A previous study showed that Portuguese teenagers are not proactive regarding energy saving, especially when it is related to digital technologies due to their importance in their everyday life [53]. This is in line with what has been observed in other European countries [11] and we surmise that it may not be much different from other urban contemporary societies.…”

“…Some studies indicate that parents tend to encourage the use of information and communication technologies by children as a way of favoring their opportunities in life [20,37,53]. Moreover, the use of the mobile phone in particular has been pointed out to be promoted by parents as a way of providing control [24], a sense of security [34], or closeness [10] in their relations with their children.…”

Energy poverty in Portugal: Combining vulnerability mapping with household interviews

“…That is the case of a 45-year old single mother with upper secondary education who lived her childhood in a heated home in France (when her parents were immigrants there), and whose sister, whom she often visits, currently lives in a dwelling with a central heating system: The expectations regarding thermal comfort may vary among household members. This may happen more often in households with two different generations, conducing to a certain degree of conflict between (most often) parents concerned with the cost of electricity (and socialized in a lower energy demanding way of life) and young people from a generation with higher expectations regarding comfort (see Schmidt et al, 2014). In the case of a 75-year old widow (with lower secondary education) living with her son, in spite of her effort to save as much energy as she can, electricity bills were higher and higher as winter progressed.…”

Awareness that coal-powered energy is environmentally degrading insignificantly affects its consumption

“…A growing body of international energy research shows household income, family composition, community type, and other demographics predict household energy consumption, with most using consumer economics frameworks to investigate appliance usage rates [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. Although government energy policies broadly note the environmental benefit of reducing energy consumption, conceptual frameworks focus on socioeconomic investigations of energy consumption, with most exploring how the socialisation processes affects youth and other family members' modification of household energy practices [5,7,9]. A limited, albeit growing, international body of research argues younger generations contribute to their household's increased energy expenditure because of their high technology consumption (i.e., Internet, mobile devices) [9,7].…”

“…Although government energy policies broadly note the environmental benefit of reducing energy consumption, conceptual frameworks focus on socioeconomic investigations of energy consumption, with most exploring how the socialisation processes affects youth and other family members' modification of household energy practices [5,7,9]. A limited, albeit growing, international body of research argues younger generations contribute to their household's increased energy expenditure because of their high technology consumption (i.e., Internet, mobile devices) [9,7]. Despite a dearth of Australian research in this area, the limited findings to date compliment this literature, evidencing that age affects energy consumption and articulating the need for further examination of how social norms may affect energy behaviours [5].…”