The empowerment of singleton daughters: exploring the gender digital divide among Chinese college students

Abstract

PurposeExisting researches find that a gender difference exists in terms of Internet usage. In China, the singleton daughters resulting from China's one-child policy enjoy unprecedented parental support. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether singleton daughters can, to some extent, break through the predicament of the digital divide.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data from a sample of 865 college students and obtained 811 valid questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to identify clusters of Internet usage from the perspective of statistical associations in various daily online activities. Two-way ANOVA and mean-comparison tests are used to analyze how singleton and non-singleton students use the Internet differently.FindingsThis study finds that singleton female students showed no significant differences from male students in aspirational activities of informational, educational use and social media use, which means that singleton female students have caught up with male students in these activities. However, female college students from multi-child families were still found to be disadvantaged in those activities.Originality/valueThere is a lack of consensus on the classification of Internet activities. We used EFA to cluster the varieties of Internet activities into three types: utilitarian use, exploratory use and aspirational use. The three identified types of Internet usage require different degrees of user initiative. We argue that initiative provides a useful lens through which to classify Internet usage. In addition, this study is among the few studies to investigate the impact of the one-child policy on the gender digital divide.

Kesenjangan Digital Pada Keluarga Jawa Di Kabupaten Wonosobo

“…Teknologi digital dapat mencegah masalah dalam keluarga, dan juga sebaliknya teknologi digital dapat menimbulkan masalah dalam keluarga (Barrie et al, 2019). Penelitian mengenai keluarga dan teknologi digital sudah banyak dilakukan, penelitian-penelitian tersebut berfokus pada: 1) dampak penggunaan teknologi digital bagi internal keluarga (Barrie et al, 2019;Dong et al, 2021;Setiansah et al, 2019;Velasquez, 2018); 2) latar belakang keluarga yang menjadi penyebab kesenjangan digital (Bonal & González, 2020;Katz et al, 2019;Liu & Wang, 2021;Scheerder et al, 2019bScheerder et al, , 2020Zhang et al, 2020;Zhong et al, 2021); 3) Peran keluarga dan/atau anggota keluarga dalam penggunaan teknologi digital anggota keluarga lainnya (Dong et al, 2021;Katz et al, 2019;Plaza-De-La-Hoz & Caro, 2018;Rosales & Blanche-T, 2021;Xiong & Zuo, 2019) Melihat fokus penelitian-penelitian yang sudah ada sebelumnya, bisa diamati bahwa situasi problematis yang dihadapi keluarga didasari pada kondisi keluarga yang didalamnya terdiri dari anggota keluarga yang berbeda umur atau generasi (keluarga lintas generasi). Hasil studi penelitian Barrie, John, dan Timothy (2019) menyebutkan bahwa teknologi komunikasi digital saat ini memainkan peran yang beragam dalam kehidupan keluarga lintas generasi.…”

Digital Environments of Education 4.0 and complex thinking: Communicative Literacy to close the digital gender gap

“…One of the key issues related to the GDD is digital harassment, abuse, and violence in cyberspace, as it limits women's ability to have a voice and participate in decision-making. Furthermore, research highlights the implications of GDD in education, where there is a lack of gendersensitive educational materials and girls' disinterest in IT-related professions (Alozie & Akpan-Obong 2017;Bikos, Stamovlasis & Tzifopoulos 2018;Zhang, Wang & Liu 2020). In education, the GDD is reflected in the false notion that computer labs are exclusive to men and in the lack of interest among girls and young women in IT-related professions (Pedraza 2021;Wong & Kemp 2018).…”

Títul Mobile visual media design based on digital media technology and augmented reality

“…Nowadays, the presentation of digital technology has been extended from two-dimensional planes to three-dimensional, four-dimensional and muftidimensional spaces, the communication has developed from one-way passive transmission to interactive information exchange, and the presentation carrier has developed from print media to the digital media field [13][14][15]. The digital age has provided a new design language for digital media design, and at the same time has impacted the traditional design models and concepts, so it must be constantly improved and integrated in the change, seeking expressions that better meet the needs of the times [16][17][18]. Therefore, how multimedia designers and producers can design, produce and display multimedia works or products with better user experience in the digital technology environment is a topic to be studied and solved [19][20][21][22].…”