The percentage of Spaniards who consider the Internet as an essential tool has increased by almost 300% since 2008, according to the Scientific Culture Study of the BBVA Foundation published this Friday. Furthermore, the survey data showed that although young people today consider the Internet and personal computer more essential, long ago the differences by age were more pronounced. In 2008, the percentage that considered both technologies essential was almost 8 times higher among young people than among older adults. Currently, the difference is much smaller and in all age segments the majority considers the Internet to be an essential technology.
During the same period, there was also a gap in the valuation of the mobile phone according to age, which has been significantly reduced today: in 2008 the percentage that considered the mobile phone essential was three times higher among young people than among older adults, while, currently, the relative difference between both segments is very small, according to the study.
Spain is not the only country from which data has been obtained. The survey was carried out in 18 European countries, including Germany, Denmark, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal and the United Kingdom, as well as in several countries of the former Eastern bloc – Bulgaria, Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Poland, Republic Czech and Romania–, and also three other societies with differential profiles: the United States, Israel and Turkey.
Considering global data, the internet has become an essential technological construct for more than 60% of Europeans, Americans, Israelis and Turks. The majority of citizens in all societies (59% in the US, 57% in Europe as a whole, 62% in Israel and up to 91% in Turkey) think the same about the mobile phone. The Spaniards are slightly above the rest of the Europeans in the valuation of the Internet (66% consider it essential compared to 61% in the European average) and below in the valuation of the mobile phone (52% consider it essential compared to 57% of the European average).
When observing other types of technologies, such as radio and television devices, the change in content consumption models is evident. The vast majority of people consulted consider that radio and television (the receiving devices) are useful technologies, but one can live without them. In Europe as a whole, only 28% consider television essential and 31% think the same about radio, percentages that are even lower in Spain (18% and 23%, respectively).
Technologies linked to transport are perceived as essential by the majority, with the train ranking first as it is the most accessible and least polluting collective means, followed by the car and the plane.
Spaniards are above the average in the perception of the train as an essential technology (66% compared to 62% of the European average) and below for the automobile (47% consider it essential compared to 54% of the average). European average).
