Youth Information Seeking Behavior
Purpose
To discuss the topic in youth information seeking behavior, this paper will explore the article by Shaifuddin, Ahmad and Mokhtar (2011) “Rural Youth’s perception of information sources and rural library services.
This research paper explores information seeking behavior in Malaysian youths living in the rural areas. From the paper, majority of the youths in Malaysia are concentrated in the rural areas and are considered as agents of change for society’s social and economic growth. In this case, these youth are expected to play an active in the development of self and the environment around them. Such development is, however, achieved through creativity to improve the conditions around them using information around them. As a result, the youths are called upon to encourage their imaginations, ideals, vision to flourish and energy for the benefits of their societies.
One commonly recognized source of information for Malaysian rural youths is library services. These services are however poor in most cases and encourage use of other sources including print and online media. Given the presence of little research information about youngster’s information seeking, the purpose of this research was to investigate the form of information youths use, whether or not they obtain satisfactory information from those sources and the problems encountered in the process of information seeking by the rural youth. The efficiency of the library services in meeting the information needs of the rural youths was also to be evaluated.
Methodology
This form of research is descriptive as it was intended to determine the state of situation as was during the time the study was carried out. The state of situation then was the perceptions of youths in rural areas on library services and needs and usages of information. To gather the necessary data, questionnaires were used given their versatile, economic and efficiency compared to observations. A sample of the rural youth population was also used given the limited nature of the study population to include only the youths. In this case, sampling was appropriate to represent the entire rural youth population without bias. 52 males and 74 females constituted the 100 participants sample.
The technique was also appropriate given its inexpensive, easy, fast and readily available form. Rural youths were included in the sample were again limited to areas with rural library services. All questionnaires were then assigned a date and unique serial number before keying them into statistical package for the social sciences SPSS for creation, cleaning and analyzing of data sets.
Findings
The rural youths used in the study ranged between 15 and 30 year with the majority being between 15-20 years. The information obtained by these youths was either for use in making important decisions, gaining new knowledge and accomplishing day to day works. The most preferred sources of information for these youths included home, office, cyber, library and community centers. Rural library use as a source of information ranked lowest with a 3 % preference. These youths were also found out to used different information channels like internet channels, family and friends, association clubs, library, field expert sand government agencies. Library channels ranked fourth lowest. Most youths preferred online sources of information to printed sources.
Majority of youths did not have a negative perception on rural libraries as majority of them admitted visiting the library at one time or the other. The number of female library visitors was however higher than that of males with the intention to use library resources being higher in males than females. When asked for the obstacles to library usage, rural youths noted lack of time, presence of alternative information sources, lack of interest, location of the library and lack of awareness of library establishment.
Validity of research design
From the study, majority of the participants are females. Although this may cause bias, it represents the Malaysian youth population given that those 25 years and over a fewer probably due to migration to urban areas. This may then mean fewer females than males travel to urban areas at the age of 25 years and above. It is then surprising that majority of these female in the rural areas seek for information from different sources to aid their decision making.
Analysis of new knowledge and world of practice for all findings
From the paper it is clear that the library is not very satisfactory place to quench the information needs of the rural youths. This is to say that despite being in the rural areas, the youths know the information they need and where to get it in an up to date form. One recommendation is to ensure rural libraries provide the youth with relevant information sources both in print and electronic form. This challenges the rural library personnel to re-evaluate the needs of users and surveys and align their services as necessary. In so doing, rural youth’s dissatisfaction on library use will be eliminated and library use promoted.
Reference
Shaifuddin, N., Ahmad, M., and Mokhtar, W., (2011). Rural Youth’s Perception of information sources and Rural Library services.
Understanding online behaviors by teenagers
The article to use for this research is by Youn, S., (2005). “Teenagers’ perception of online privacy and coping behavior: a risk benefits appraisal approach”.
Introduction
Many marketers are today targeting the teen market given its ever increasing spending power and size. This was evidenced in a research by Teenage research Unlimited (2004) which had predicted the number of adolescents between 12-19 years increasing to 38 million from35 million in seven years. This same report also suggested that this age bracket spent more than $175 billion which was about $103 each in a week. The report also revealed these teenagers as being brought up with the internet in their lives which was why the marketers of teenage items used e-marketing and reported $1.3 billion shilling was spent by this age bracket online. This online interaction between marketers and teens has risen concerned on just how secure online gathering and use of personal information by marketers is to the teenagers.
The attempt to protect the privacy of teenagers online led to the enactment of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act or COPPA in 1998. This law required all websites targeting children to require children to submit parental consent that was verifiable before collecting, using and disclosing personal information. Brokers were also required to gain parental consent before selling private information to children online. However, little effort has been done to examine how teenagers perceive online privacy and their response to online marketers’ information collection and use practices. Additionally, other studies have focused on adults attitudes about online privacy leaving the teens. The purpose of this paper was to discuss teenagers’ perception on online privacy with teenager being ranked as anyone aged 13 years to 19 years old.
Methodology
To evaluate teenagers’ perception of online privacy for this study, 345 teenagers were recruited from two public high schools in MidWestern, midsized cities in 2002. To qualify for inclusion, these schools had extensive facilities for computers and access to the internet which was also incorporated into normal curriculum. The included respondents consisted of 60% females and 40% males. All participants ranged between 14-18 years old. The sample consisted of Caucasian 84%, Native Americans 5% and Hispanic Americans 2% while 8% from other ethnic groups.
The survey instruments were used to measure areas like susceptibility of perceived risk, severity of perceived risk, perceived benefits of offered in information exchange, willingness to provide information, coping behaviors to handle risk and demographic characteristics. Using a 4-point Likert scale, ranging from one to 4-very concerned, respondents indicated their concerned for each risk mentioned. The potential benefits of information exchanged were measured using 16 items derived from previous studies on teenagers internet use. The willingness to disclose information was measured using one question which required participants to indicate whether or not they were willing to provide such information. For the risk coping strategies, teenagers were asked to indicate their behaviors.
Findings
88% of the respondent teenagers indicated being susceptible to time risks of getting junk email or unwanted email. Concerning the severity of perceived risks, most teenagers indicated higher concern for getting junk email and less concerned on financial risks. Majority of the participants also perceived instant sending of messages to someone online and listening to and downloading music. Based on the willingness to provide personal information, most participants were more willing to provide demographic information and media use with email address sharing being the least willing to provide.
Conclusion and recommendations
From the study, the benefits of disclosing personal information by teenagers were found out to be more than the risks associated. This was true especially when teenagers were to be offered free gifts. Teenagers are in the growth and development stage that makes them curious and very experimental. This can be associated with their willingness to risk giving out their persona information to online sources for free gifts or other benefits.
In this case, the teenager focuses more on the promised benefit other than the potential risks involved and their impact on the teenagers’ life. At late adolescence, teenagers were seen to adopt their own strategies to withhold their true information compared to the young teenagers. Given these findings, it is essential to ensure all teenagers are made aware of the possible risks that may arise from disclosure of personal information. This can be done by public policy makers, marketers and educators. Motivation should also be provided to teenager to encourage risk-lowering behaviors like information withholding.
Reference
Youn, S., (2005). Teenagers’ perception of online privacy and coping behaviors: a risk-benefit appraisal approach. Journal of Broadcasting and online media. Retrieved from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m6836/is_1_49/ai_n25108512/pg_12/?tag=content;col
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