Digital Literacy, Accessibility and Connectivity in Rural Areas: the case of young people in Italy, Portugal and Spain

In a society in which communication is increasingly mediated by ICTs, digital literacy, accessibility and connectivity becomes crucial, especially for young people living in rural and/or isolated environments. Promoting digital inclusion of young people in rural contexts requires, first of all, policies that promote democratisation of access and use of digital tools, in order to overcome a set of barriers, such as accessibility - investment in the acquisition of electronic equipment, such as a computer, for example, which is not always accessible to families; connectivity - many rural and remote areas still have poor internet coverage; literacy - it is necessary to provide young people with a set of skills which enable them to the use of ICTs and the internet (Ferreira & Vieira, 2020). As described above, the use of digital media presents new challenges for young people, as e-learning and social networks are transforming social relationships. Nevertheless, the use of ICT provides several advantages, such as the elimination of physical barriers, access to less costly training, or increased cooperation and communication as well as negative effects range from inequality and social exclusion (Pagani et al., 2016) to cyber-aggression (Mishna et al., 2018), technology addiction (Lachmann et al., 2018), and poorer learning and academic outcome (Hawi & Samaha, 2016). As digital natives, advanced ICT skills can give young people a competitive edge over the rest of society in terms of employment opportunities. Contemporary young people are also called Digital Natives, thus expecting them to have better digital skills than the rest of the population.These expectations, however, are illusory, or at least are limited exclusively to a small part of technology use, the more recreational one or to a relatively small sample of the youth population. In fact, there is evidence that socioeconomic factors affect the level of young people’s digital skills, thus creating a digital divide among them. From an intrapersonal perspective, ICT is changing social interactions. Social media involves creating a digital life and personality which can affect young people’s well-being. To respond to these challenges, digital skills now form part of the curriculum of schools and higher education institutions. In summary, technology is particularly important for young people, specially for those living in rural areas, as it can mitigate the differences from young people living in urban areas, in what concerns, for example the access to resources on digital platforms or the access to online services on education and employment. This paper intends to map and reflect the situation of ICT in Rural areas, regarding accessibility, connectivity and literacy, and how this can promote or limit young people's opportunities and deepening inequalities. Our analysis focuses on the situation of three southern European countries (Italy, Portugal and Spain). It was decided to consider these countries for two principal reasons. The first is related to geographical origin: southern Europe. The second is related to the fact that they share several characteristics in common: welfare states (Castels, 1995; Ferrera, 1996; Rhodes, 1997); similar labour market indicators dynamics; political democratic systems (Pridham, 1984; Hopkin, 2001); bureaucracies (Sotiropoulos, 2004) and, of course, the characteristics of the administrations themselves. In terms of methodology, we will focus on secondary data analysis using international and national databases (Eurostat, ILO, OECD, etc.) on digitalisation.