Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

DIGITAL
BUTETOWN:


Youth
Access
&
Use
of
Digital
Technology


CASE
Insight
Report

Kelly
Page

David
Barrie

Jeremy
Gould


July
2009

 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Executive Summary
How might the digital technologies bridge communities and network local life in a
collective way? This is a question raised by the Digital Butetown project.

As part of this project, this report explore the access to and use of digital
technologies by youth between the ages 11-19 who are currently schooled in the
Butetown catchment area.

Key
Insights:


The results of the survey administered to a convenience sample of youth 11-19
years, reveals the following profile of youth in the cash-poor area of Butetown
(Cardiff, UK).

• Internet Home Access. 92% can access to the Internet/Web at home.

• Length of Use at Home. 46% use the web on average for up to 1 hour a day
from home.

• Community Access. 46% use local community access points (e.g., Internet
Caféʼs, Libraries).

• Mobile Phone Use. Are heavy users of mobile technologies, especially for text
messaging (SMS).

• Social Network Use. Use MSN, Bebo, Facebook and MySpace (amongst others
services) to socially connect and chat with friends.

• Number of Friends. As youth get older the number of members on their social
networking sites increase.

• Favourite Websites. Rate YouTube, Friv, Google and Bebo as their favourite
websites.

Digital
Butetown

Digital Butetown is a British Council Wales project and part of a larger, pan-European
initiative called OPENCities. It is supported by igloo Regeneration, an investment
fund managed by Aviva and described by the United Nations as "the world's first
socially responsible property fund".

Google Groups: http://groups.google.com/group/digitalbutetown?hl=en

2
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Exploring Butetownʼs Digital

Community!
Butetown in Cardiff is home to 14,000 people and over forty-
six different nationalities. It may be cash poor - but it is
culturally rich.

There are many dynamic members of the community working

together on renewal of the area and people keen to explore the
use and application of online tools, technologies and channels
as a way of sharing information, experience and supporting
local initiatives.

Butetown has a Ning group, local people connect in Facebook

groups, kids play games against each other online and there's
busy file-sharing of music.

But
does
fragmentation
of

online
social
networking

mirror
the
fragmentation
of

real
life?

Fragmentation between new and old communities, diverse
ethnic groups, communities of interest and different issues of
concern.

If you believe in the power of communication and see the

online space as a place that could be socially useful and
productive, a few questions are raised:

• How can such communities and existing online networking

be connected and support the area, its existing and future
human relationships and social and economic progress?

• How can we make digital participation work on a large

spatial scale?

• What are the online infrastructures that could enable

existing and future networks in the future?

Here we explore the use of digital technologies by youth in

Butetown to learn from the digital natives about their digital
community activities?

3
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Youth in the UK are connected

more than ever!
13-19 year olds are a web savvy demographic that wields
tremendous influence on peers, parents, societal trends and
culture.

At this life stage young people make key decisions about their
identity, their friends and social networks, their educational
needs, their families and careers.

Their day-to-day schedule also undergoes transformation, from

the relative structure of school life, to the responsibility of
employment and the relative freedom of post-secondary
education.

Youth are more connected than ever.

13‐19
year
olds
are
digital

natives,
super‐communicators

and
mediasnackers1. 

But
do
youth
in
cash‐poor

areas
have
different
access

and
usage
profiles?

 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Accessing Youth in Butetown!

To profile the social web usage behaviour of youth in
the Butetown area, over 1000 youth between the ages
of 11-19 were surveyed with the support of a local
school. The surveys were administered to a
convenience sample of pupils during class.

We
asked
youth
to
tell
us

about
their
Internet
access

and
their
use
of
social
web

and
mobile
technologies.


Data collection took place in March 2009. Over 1300
surveys were distributed. A total of 1032 usable
surveys were completed with a response rate of 79%.

Preliminary response analysis shows that from the

participants who reported their age (n=956), 47% were
aged 13 years or below. This indicates a relatively
young overall sample. With an average of 14 years in
the sample, 21% were aged 12 years, 19% ages 13
years, 17% 14 years and a further 16% 15 years of
age.

5
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Where
do
I
live?

Of the sample surveyed, although the school might reside within the Butetown area,
pupils come from quite a wide catchment area consisting of over 25 areas across
Cardiff. The main areas represented in the sample (n=1028) include: Grangetown
(32%); Canton (23%); Riverside (22%) and Butetown (12%).

Does
a
Youth
Digital
Divide
Exist?

Internet access is often used as proxy to measure and discuss the digital divide in
society – the difference between those that have and those that donʼt have Internet
access. In essence, it is often falsely assumed that those from more cash-poor areas
do not have the same access profile to the Internet at home as users from more
cash-rich areas.

In contrast, the results of this study show that 92% of the sample (n=1030) of youth
being schooled in the Butetown area can access the Internet at home. In fact, 46% of
the sample (n=959) accesses the Internet for up to 1 hour a day from home. This
shows evidence of a heavy usage profile at home among 11-19 year olds who go to
school in the Butetown area.

In addition to accessing the Internet at home, 42% (n=433) indicated that they also
had access to the Internet from other sources or locations. Of these sources 19%
were strong-tie source (e.g., family and friends); 74% were weak-tie or institutional
sources (e.g., the local library, Internet café, at school); and 7% used a combination
of the both, strong and weak tie sources.

These results reveal heavy use of the Internet from within sources in the wider
Butetown community area such as Internet cafes (Café Click, Buzz), local library, and
Internet facilities at school.

6
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Closer examination shows the distribution of these sources by age.

So what about mobile access?

According to Youth Mobile in
2008, 52% of youth in the UK
aged, 5-9 had a mobile
phone, and among 10-14 year
olds this figure rose to close to
85%6.

In the Butetown area, we

identified that 88% (n=1025)
of sample aged 11-19 had a
mobile phone, with mobile
phone ownership increasing
with age.

The results also show that

49% (n=892) of the sample
send over 50+ text messages
a month, and 55% (n=996)
have taken a photo with their
mobile phone. This shows a
high mobile usage profile.
7
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Are Butetown Youth Socially

Connected Online!
Nielsen (2009) commented in a report on Social Web Usage, that social networking
sites and chat functions are very important to youth, surpassing email use among
teens5. This is consistent for Butetown youth, with 43% having membership of MSN,
26% Bebo, 22% Facebook and 9% MySpace.

Closer examination of the responses provides evidence of a weak but significant

positive correlation between a participantʼs age and the number of friends they have
overall on social networking sites (r=0.150; p<0.01). So as youth grow older they
accumulate and accept more friends within their digital social network.

In the last five years the Web has undergone tremendous change with the evolution
and rapid adoption of Web 2.0. This evolution has resulted in increased services,
tools, channels and technologies with the core aim of sharing and co-creating content
in networked member communities.

As a result the socio-cultural and technical experience of the web would have been
very different for 17-19 year olds five years ago than for todayʼs 11-13 year olds.

8
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Favourite Websites!
When asked to indicate their favourite web sites many participants opted out of this
question, with many indicating there was too many to mention. In fact over 30% of
the sample, reported more than one ʻfavourite websiteʼ

Below is brief list of by Digital Butetown Youth Survey of the types of favourite
websites ranked in order of popularity. YouTube, Friv and Google are the most
mentioned favourite websites among 11-19 year olds in Butetown.

Website # % Website # %
You Tube 179 28.00% BBC 11 1.70%
Friv 113 17.70% Wikipedia 10 1.60%
Google 86 13.40% Yahoo.co.uk 4 0.60%
Bebo 76 11.90% Ebay 3 0.50%
Facebook 75 11.70% Hip Hop DS 2 0.30%
MSN 35 5.50% Hi5 2 0.30%
Hotmail 17 2.70% agames.com 2 0.30%

1. YouTube is the leader in online video, and the premier destination to watch and
share original videos worldwide through a Web experience.

2. Friv is a collection of flash games, all free and displayed on one page. Choose
among 250 game titles to play with your friends.

9
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

3. Google is now widely recognized as the world's largest search engine - an easy-
to-use free service that usually returns relevant results in a fraction of a second.
Googleʼs mission is to organise the worldsʼ information.

Key Insights:
The results of the survey administered to a convenience sample of youth 11-19
years, reveals the following profile of youth in the cash-poor area of Butetown
(Cardiff, UK).

• Internet Home Access.

92% can access the
Internet/Web at home.

• Length of Use at Home.

46% use the web on
average for up to 1 hour a
day from home.

• Community Access. 46%

use local community access
points (e.g., Internet Caféʼs,
Libraries).

• Mobile Phone Use. Are

heavy users of mobile technologies, especially for text messaging (SMS).

• Social Network Use. Use MSN, Bebo, Facebook and MySpace (amongst others
services) to socially connect and chat with friends.

• Number of Friends. As youth get older the number of members on their social
networking sites increase.

• Favourite Websites. Rate YouTube, Friv, Google and Bebo as their favourite
websites.

10
 Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

ENDNOTES

1. Page (2009) The Web Makes Me Feel: CASE Insight Report, MediaSnackers
(July 2009). Access: www.twmmf.com

2. OfCom (2007) Digital Lifestyles & Media Literacy. August, 2007.

www.ofcom.org.uk

3. ONS (2008) Internet Access 2008: Households and Individuals, Office of National
Statistic (ONS), UK; August 2008. www.statistics.gov.uk

4. Nielsen (2009) How Teens Use Media, The Nielsen Company (USA), June 2009.
www.nielsen.com

5. Nielsen (2009) Global Faces & Networked Places: Report on Social Networks
New Global Footprint. The Nielsen Company, May, 2009 www.nielsen-online.com

6. Youth Mobile (2008) Mobile Youth Report. www.mobileyouth.org

7. eMarketer (2008) UK Men Online. eMarketer Online Report. January 2009.

www.emarketer.com

8. Nielsen (2009) Nielsen Online Data Quick Take: Kids Online, The Nielsen
Company: 6th July; www.nielsen-online.com

AUTHORS

Dr. Kelly Page | www.caseinsights.com

Kelly is an insight architect, who researchers digital market adoption, use and
usability and lectures at Cardiff Business School on Digital Marketing and Marketing
Research. Kelly is director of CASE Insights, a research initiative grounded on the
use of case methodologies and a social-system worldview. The core aim of the
initiative is to explore, document and share insights about Marketingʼs evolution
through technology.

David Barrie | http://davidbarrie.typepad.com

David is an urban consultant, project, design and media producer based in London,
England. He creates and manages urban renewal projects for public and private
organisations. And he makes TV programmes for Channel 4 Television and the BBC.

Jeremy Gould | http://whitehallwebby.com/

Jeremy is a civil servant at a UK government department with responsibility for digital

media strategy. I lead a team of web professionals managing a portfolio of websites,
developing customer-centric online communication propositions, and using social
media tools to encourage online engagement.

PARTNERS
Digital Butetown: Exploring Youth Access & Use of Digital Technology

Digital Butetown
Twitter: #digitalbutetown

caseinisghts.com (cc) Creative Commons 2009,

All Rights Reserved. Thanks.

12