Six out of 10 teenagers believe they deserve better technology education, reveals a new survey.
According to a new data released in the 2012 Realtime Generation Report, published by Logicalis UK, 60 percent of UK teenagers feel that the government should provide them with better technology education, with 44 percent fearing that poor IT education will block them from getting a good job in the future.
Nearly 70 percent now use Facebook and Twitter to connect with parents and grandparents. The next stage in this generation's Facebook and social media habits is firmly on building better family connections. With 4 in 10 believing the older generation is cut off from their digital world and 77 percent are actively helping their parents and grandparents online and get social.
That's just one finding in a survey of almost 1,000 13-17 year olds - The Realtime Generation - revealed the digital behaviours, technology ambitions and opinions of UK teenagers today. The call for improving IT education for future job prospects comes from the most digitally connected members of our society.
Only 20 percent of teens feel technology education is good enough and almost 8 in 10 (77 percent) of those that have considered a career believe good technology skills will make a positive difference to their employment prospects. 1 in 5 want to work in the IT industry and over 50 percent believe technology will play a key role in whatever job they chose. More than 1 in 10 have already programmed a computer. Of those that have not, 35 percent know what it entails while only 25 percent say that they don't know what it means.
As previously said, 7 in 10 teens now connect with parents via social networking sites and over 70 percent of respondents that expressed an opinion said they used Facebook and Twitter to communicate with parents and grandparents. However, 65 percent said they still felt better connected to their friends than to their family through social networks. 40 percent felt their grandparents were being cut off from the new digital world wile almost 8 in 10 teenagers (77 percent) said that they have helped a parent or grandparent to access a website.
"Our findings suggest that it is no longer 'uncool' to have elder family members as 'friends' on Facebook," explains Tom Kelly, MD of Logicalis UK. "In fact, it is now one of their preferred methods of connecting. For these teens, breaking down the barriers between the generations means building digital connections to those closest to them. We are seeing Realtimers actively participating in closing the digital divide. Not only do they want to connect digitally to their families, they are not waiting around for someone else to take the lead."
