ค่านิยมดิจิทัลกับพฤติกรรมด้านการสื่อสารออนไลน์ของเด็กและเยาวชนไทย

Abstract

This research has the following objectives: to study the use behavior of online social media by Thai students; to study communication behavior through online social media of children youth with different socio-economic factors, and to study relationship between digital values of the students and their communication behaviors related to communication rights and to their self-expression. The study uses survey research based on self-administered questionnaires collected from 547 samples, in-depth interview with 20 students who are regular users of online social media, and key information interviews with five experts in the area of children and online social media usage. Results shows that 31.7 percent of the studied samples own a smart phone and Facebook is ranked first in terms of application used (27.8 percent). Most of studied samples use online social media every day (81.9 percent) and 47.7 percent spend more than three hours a day on this application. Their most frequently reported purpose in using online social media is to communicate with their circle of friends (19.2 percent). As for their digital values, the samples are found to register a high score for these following values – freedom, integrity, collaboration, entertainment, and innovation. Meanwhile, they report a medium score for self-obsession value.
Based on in-depth interviews conducted, it could be analyzed that intense and continued use of online media by Thai children and youth have opened up new learning space. These have incubated new values akin to their counterparts in the West who are also frequent users of online media. However, cultural environment and family upbringing in Thai society may have also influenced some youngsters to retain their Thai cultural attributes that stand in the way of western assimilation.