The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Societies in Transition to the Network Society 39
If the relationship between use of the Internet and education seems
to be transversal to all countries, there is also a characteristic in the
education dimension that seems to be common to almost all countries
analyzed her: all of them, with the exception of the Czech Republic,
reveal strong generational differences in terms of the completion of
secondary education and tertiary education. The countries under
analysis can be grouped into three distinct groups. The first group
includes most of the countries: all those which present growth rates
for completion of the education level ranging from 300% to 50%
between the generations. This first group is also heterogeneous, for
though countries such as Greece and Hungary present values in
the younger generations that place them above 70% completion
of secondary education, Portugal, Brazil and Uruguay are below
40%. Also in this group, in an intermediate position, are Spain,
Poland, Argentina and Chile, which all have values close to 60%
of the population with secondary education completed in the
younger generations. This first group (with the exception of
Greece) is also characterized by figures for the completion of
higher education that are clearly below the average for the G7
countries.
A second group of countries, made up of the Czech Republic and
Slovakia, seems to be in a better position, presenting diminutive generational
differences in terms of education, given that even in the
older generations completion of secondary education was close to or
above 70%.
Finally, we have a third group made up by Italy alone, a country
characterized by high growth rates for the completion of secondary
education in the younger generations and values very close to those
of Finland as far as investment in tertiary education by the
younger generations is concerned. Italy presents itself, once more, as
a dual society: simultaneously an information society and one in
transition.
The generation analysis focusing on the question of education can
also be observed when we look at the relationship between age and
use of the Internet.