Technostress & personality: factors in the digital divide?

Abstract

The term 'digital divide' is generally explained as a division between people who do, and those who do not, access internet technologies because of economic, social, educational and age inequalities. This quantitative study explored whether other factors, such as technostress and personality, also contribute to digital divisions. School contexts were chosen because of their junction between digitally aware younger people and adults. One hundred and thirteen adults and 164 students in four Irish post-primary schools completed personality and technostress inventories. Findings indicated that adults experienced more technostress than students and that low technostress was associated with high emotional stability. As wired communication becomes a global focus for social, commercial and civic engagement, resulting implications for learning pedagogies are examined.