NETWORK SOCIETY: University students and new technologies. Relationships between the use of new digital technologies in the process of mass communication and social interaction of the young generation

The focus group interview conducted among students at Adam Mickiewicz University inPoznań who were born in the early 1990s indicates the students’ attitudes towards reality, aswell as approaches and methods of using modern information technologies used for communicationand obtaining information (mainly the Internet). Contrary to general opinionsof contemporary youth, the 1990s generation has not lost perspective and is able to makereasonable assessments. Young people consciously use technical goods and critically evaluatethe behaviour that exceeds social norms or common sense. They prefer personal contactwith other people rather than contact via telephone, SMS messages or the Internet. They seethe advantages of the Internet, such as access to information, knowledge and entertainment,facilitation of functional, professional and private contact, as well as noticing the hazardsresulting from excessive and mindless use of the Internet and other legal threats related tothe medium. For them, new communication technologies are a useful tool for communicating.However, young people have language problems consisting of a difficulty in expressingthemselves which results from abbreviated forms of expression used in the mass media.