A study by the eLearning Innovation Center (eLinC) of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC), in collaboration with Accenture, has provided an overview of the main trends in the consumption of digital content by young people and adolescents. The results suggest that 70% of people between the ages of 14 and 35 have the mobile phone as the main tool for reading digital content.
In addition, the report also points out that the digital format makes this group more prone to mental wandering, compared to paper, which allows them to concentrate better. The report The future of digital content consumption, available openly in the UOC repository, points out that in an environment of overabundant information, only organizations capable of capturing the attention of users will be able to prosper.
And it is not surprising: according to the data collected in the report, in fifteen years the attention span of humans has dropped from 12 to 8.2 seconds. In addition, tools such as the mobile phone, which we consult more than 150 times a day, put our ability to concentrate even more to the test. “It’s pretty clear that multitasking causes a loss of efficiency. However, we also see that young people have a lot of criteria to differentiate the use of devices, formats and channels depending on the moment or the objective they are pursuing”, explains Guillem Garcia Brustenga, expert in detection and analysis of trends at eLinC and work coordinator.
More than a hundred indicators
In the first phase of the study, the researchers have analyzed 111 reference indicators on digital content to detect which factors have an impact on consumption, understand the macro trends, extract data on the behavior of young people and understand the market logic behind the changes. training content.
Thus, they have been able to see that students with more problems concentrating prefer content in video to discover or clarify concepts during their training. Digital content has come to have a central position in the lives of young people, marked by an environment with a clear trend towards monetization and virtualization: a third want to be influential and one in five believe they can be a professional gamer.
Health impact
The UOC study also brings to light the impact of digital overexposure on the mental health of the collective: 20% of young people present symptoms of insomnia, 40% say they go online to avoid feeling alone and 81% suffer nomophobia (fear of being without the mobile). According to the experts consulted, these growing pathologies are used by organizations of all kinds to attract more young users with different marketing strategies.
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Another relevant point is that the digital content consumption model is very uneven among young people and the factors that determine it cannot be understood without knowing their lifestyle. Young people with better reading comprehension are those with more studies, who in turn have a more favorable socioeconomic environment and carry out more physical and leisure activities outside the home. “Age, social class and leisure habits determine the capacity to absorb knowledge”, confirms Garcia Brustenga.
generational differences
In a second phase of the work, qualitative research was carried out through interviews with experts in education and psychology from inside and outside the UOC, as well as students from Spain and Mexico. And it has been seen that not all generations of young people are the same. Generation Z (late 1990-early 2000) prefers devirtualization —78% of these young people believe that the teacher is very important in their learning and development—, while generation Y (early 1980-late 1990) , who has been studying for years, seeks the flexibility of self-directed and 100% digital formats. In addition, in general terms, there is a polarization of students according to what they expect from the university: some go to the minimum, and others are highly motivated.
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“Once the data has been analyzed and the macro trends have been detected, the results of this report will help the eLinC specialists and the rest of the UOC to continue advancing in the optimization of digital teaching, directing their research towards new models, formats and content that are sufficiently motivating and that they seek an emotional bond with the student”, indicates the director of eLinC, Sílvia Sivera.
Fuente: tynmagazine.com