The Network Society - University of Massachusetts Amherst

Societies in Transition to the Network Society 41
Table 2.8 International comparison of Internet use per age group (%)
United
Kingdom Portugal Germany Hungary Italy Japan Korea Spain USA
16 to 24 yrs 80.1 58.8 59.6 45.1 66.4 80.6 95.1 70.2 90.8
35 to 44 yrs 72.8 30.4 55.6 13.7 37.4 63.0 49.5 31.7 74.5
55 to 64 yrs 38.7 5.4 31.6 4.3 9.0 22.2 11.5 11.7 67.3
Source: CIES, Network Society in Portugal Survey, 2003 for Portugal; for all other countries:
WIP (World Internet Project)
The age dimension also can be used for comparison not only at the
European level, for European, American and Asian societies all offer
the possibility of comparative inter-generational analyses. Italy figures
as a country in an intermediate position between information societies
such as Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan and the USA and other
societies in transition such as Portugal, Spain and Hungary.
The explanation for these differences between the generations in
using the Internet seems, for the societies in transition, to lie mostly in
the difference in the possession of basic forms of literacy, whereas in the
more developed information societies the differences probably have
more to do with the availability of contents that adapt to the interests of
all generations and, furthermore, the dimension of the sociability networks
that the technology can offer to more senior citizens.
All the factors analyzed so far in the infrastructure, production and
knowledge dimensions and also those relating to acquired skills,
employment structure and predominance of low and medium technology
areas in the economy, are also reflected in the economies’ compared
productivity levels and their GDP per capita.
On a competitiveness index of 0-100, where the average for the
advanced economies is 74 points, the societies in transition under
analysis here occupy varied positions. Chile (26th), Spain (31st),
Portugal (39th) and Slovakia (40th) are amongst the top forty countries
or regions, while the remaining countries occupy positions
between 42nd (Hungary) and 59th (Argentina).
Whereas the Portuguese GDP per capita represents 67% of the
average for the advanced economies, placing it amongst the top thirty
countries in an international comparison (together with Spain, Italy
and Greece), the other countries (with the exception of the Czech
Republic, Slovakia and Hungary) present values below 30% of the
GDP per capita of the G7 economies.