Children and Youth at the Beginning of Media and Information Society

Summary

Societal functions of the young and old generations are specific and complementary. The function of the young generation is to acquire innovations and to introduce societal changes. The youth as the most sensitive part of the society reacts to current conditions in the society in a flexible way. Therefore, if we want to understand the youth, we should search the society and if we wish to know the future development of the society, we should analyze the youth.

The present generation differs from the previous generations, since it acquires phenomena which are new and qualitatively different from the previous human history. In the total they computerize the society, create the information society and digitalize the life field and lifestyle. The virtual life of young people in cyberspace exerts a feedback and influences their social maturation. It was particularly the young generation, which computerized the society in the nineties. The different approach of the two generations to new technologies resulted in a generation gap of the nineties, where the young created a cyberculture and the older generations lived in the cultural milieu having been formed for centuries.

Key words:
youth, generation, seniors, media, television, computer, internet, information society, digital age, innovation, social maturation, cyberspace, cyberculture, computerization of the life field, computerization of lifestyle