This study was set to explore the impact of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and face-to-face interaction in acquiring social ties (i.e., a type of social capital) that effect individual’s well-being amongst the high school Finnish adolescents of the sparsely populated areas of North Karelia.
This study sought to answer the research question based on sociality component, intensity of associational links or activity. For this respondents were enquired about their family background, whether they stay with their families or away from them, as family ties are bonding (closed ties) social capital, that has its major role to play in shaping the identity of the adolescents. Respondents were also questioned about their friend or peer relationships, as for adolescents, friends or peers (bonding social capital) secure a very important section of their cognitive, emotional and social advancement. The other was the cognitive component that was also studied. It included perceptions of support, norm of reciprocity, sharing and trust in the social relationship that the respondents possess. The importance of trust is an integral part of social capital. Without trust, social interactions would be impossible. It has a vital role to play in the relationships that we build. The relationships, communities, cooperation and mutual commitment that characterize social capital could not exist without the foundation of trust. The characteristic of personal relationships are important for individual well-being. The composition and size of people’s networks, or their satisfaction level with their relationships- relatives and friends (bonding/strong ties), colleagues or neighbors (bridging/weak ties) - are all determinants for social and psychological well-being.
Social capital provides social-networks and links to the individuals and communities, which are utilized for positive contribution in times of difficulties. Individuals can co-operatively work together in crisis period and overcome it if there is mutual trust and reciprocity. In this transitional phase of life, adolescents undergo many psychosocial changes that could be best overcome if their relationships with family and friends are strong.
The study also tried to find difference in opinion amongst the respondents of the four different schools in terms of distance or location they are situated in.
This work has worked upon answering questions regarding ICT use. The respondents fall in the digitalized era and are part of the ‘digital native’. They live in a country where availability of Internet connection has become a legal right for its people. In such a
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backdrop, it is obvious that these youngsters have advanced technological gadgets with Internet connection (all part of the ICT). For this, questions related to frequency of use of technological gadgets like PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone and mobile phone; access to Internet at different places; purposes of Internet usage and time spent over Internet were enquired. However, it’s interesting to notice that a majority of them use the Internet less than twelve hours a day and even a negligible few do not use the Internet every day. They use the Internet and these gadgets for schoolwork, contacting family and friends, seeking information, playing games and recreational purposes.
Contacting friends through different social networking sites or messengers is one of the purposes that has majority in respect to the other uses of internet. This study also has empirical evidence regarding this, as a good number of respondents agreed with the statement ‘I spend more time over Internet due to longer distance from friends’. Meanwhile, a few of the respondents also agreed with the statement ‘I spend more time over Internet due to longer distance from family’. During upper-secondary school education, many adolescents need to move out from their place of birth and get admitted to a new school. For this, they are distanced away from their old friends and family. Hence, they use the Internet to connect to their family and friends.
The result suggests that respondents also use the Internet for seeking information. This is outside their curriculum (school-work). In this globalized era, through the Internet one can get knowledge almost about any topic. Youngsters can gather information about their social, political or economic etc. situations through the Internet. A majority of respondents agreed with the statement ‘I am aware about my social surroundings/municipality’, which gives a strong evidence for the purpose of seeking information through the Internet. The second statement: ‘I spend more time over Internet due to longer distance from family’, had statistically significant difference between the schools. A few of the respondents of Outokumpu agreed whereas it was maximum from Nurmes. Nurmes being further away from Joensuu and Outokumpu being a comparatively bigger town with future studies and job opportunities creates this differentiation.
Along-with the ICT use, this study has tried to find respondents’ involvement with local affairs, reading of newspapers, visit to youth or activity clubs in order to note their face-to-face interaction with other and involvement in their local affairs. All these have relation and directly or indirectly affects individual’s social relationships or social capital for so. A
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majority of respondents acclaimed they are not associated with the community activity centers/groups, though there were some interesting findings with the ones visiting the community activity centers/groups. A majority of them who visited the activity centers/groups, stated that they visit community centers/groups once in a week, one-fourth visit once in a month, a bit fewer visit daily, and 15 stated they visit less than once in a month. Face-to-face meetings seemed still to be important for these ‘digital natives’, as majority of them agreed with the statements- ‘I prefer to meet friends face-to-face and I still want to belong to leisure community centers where other people are met face-to-face’.
Comparisons between schools showed no statistical significant differences in this regard.
Yes is the dominating answer about possessing good friends in those community centers/groups they participate in by the respondents, even though quite many report having not. An interesting notion here was the big amount of missing cases: those who have not wanted to answer to this question. For these adolescents, friends in community activity centers/groups are closer as a majority of them agreed with the statement- ‘Friends in community activity centers/groups are closer than social network sites’. Comparisons between schools showed minor differences with Ilomantsi having the highest percentage and Kontiolahti having the least.
As discussed earlier, difference of opinion amongst the respondents of the four different high schools of North Karelia region (Ilomantsi, Kontiolahti, Outokumpu and Nurmes) was one of the objectives of our study. It was so as distance from the nearby city (Joensuu) plays a pivotal role in day to day activities of the people. It enables to opt for different choices available and make different decisions accordingly. Availability of future higher studies or job prospect are some issues that gets affected by this. These areas are sparsely populated areas of North Karelia region and have lesser opportunity in terms of higher studies and jobs compared to Joensuu. Thus a good number of respondents agreed with the statement ‘I want to move-away from my present living place’. There was statistically significant difference between the different schools of the four regions regarding this statement. A majority of respondents from Ilomantsi agreed to the statement to that of Outokumpu. This is so for the distance away they are situated from Joensuu and Outokumpu being a bigger place with better opportunities and amenities than Ilomantsi.
Due to time constraint and lack of permission from the vocational training school, data could not be collected from there. Hence in future works it would be an aim to find the opinion of the students from vocational training schools related to this topic. Vocational training
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schools have all together a different setup from high-schools. So it would be an interesting endeavor. Also a comparison of opinion regarding this topic between students of Joensuu schools and that of other small areas of North Karelia schools is equally appealing for future work.
Being a non-native, this work has enabled me to enter the world of the Finnish adolescents of the North Karelia region. I endow my sincere gratitude to the head of the schools and the students who patiently and voluntarily responded to my questionnaire. I would like to carry forward my work and get back to the students with the results that I found from their answers as I had promised so when sent the questionnaires. I would like to get involved with them deeper to penetrate their thoughts and unravel some more queries that emerged into my mind while writing this thesis. One of the intriguing question that arose while analyzing the results was to find that in Finland where universal minimum Internet access speed is a legal requirement there are also a negligible few adolescents who do not use the Internet daily.
This is very interesting as to how one being a part of this digital native generation can stay away from the ICT in their daily use, when their other friends and peers use them almost rigorously. Is it an anti-reaction to how pervasive ICT has become in this globalized era by (though a few) digital natives who stay in very less populated areas of North Karelia region of Finland? Another question that comes to my mind for me being a city girl, is how does it feel to travel long distances every day for going to school or some other reasons for these adolescents of especially Ilomantsi and Nurmes who stay in sparsely populated areas as these two places are on the edges of the North Karelia region. To get my answers I would like to go and interact with these young adolescents, get involved and interview them.
Maybe that would bring some more interesting findings that were not known to us about these adolescents, the young people.
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