Incidence of virtual social networks in the development of global citizenship in high school students from Hidalgo

Abstract

The objective of the article that is presented is to show the importance of virtual social networks and the use, especially social, that young high school students from Hidalgo make in the construction of global citizenship. To account for this, an investigation was carried out, whose methodology was mixed, that is, quantitative through a survey, and qualitative through 3 focus groups. The questionnaire addressed the following topics: connectivity, use of social networks, activities in them, reactions and perspectives. The focus groups attended three blocks: social networks, politics and citizenship, citizenship and global citizenship. The main findings found were that the use of social networks among young people is widespread, especially in entertainment pages, reacting and disseminating approximately half of those surveyed to human rights issues, and to a lesser extent they use them to discussion and social activism, despite the fact that the majority consider that they generate dynamics of social mobilization, global solidarity, critical thinking and that they can help generate a more democratic society. These data extracted from the survey data analysis are complemented with the information obtained in the qualitative phase of the study. Of them, it stands out that the participants meant social networks mainly as: refuge, virtual universe, coexistence center, ordered chaos; they recognize that its use has changed the way people relate to each other and communicate, as well as their self-perception and the perception they have of others and of society; maintain an ambivalent position regarding the type of citizenship to which they ascribe, containing elements of the liberal -legal bond-, republican -citizen participation- and community -belonging to a community-, as well as a more cosmopolitan one that they identify with the possibilities that social networks offer. The main conclusions were that high school students from Hidalgo often use social networks, they are important in their daily lives, they know their scope and possibilities of information, and dissemination of social and mobilization issues, they also recognize their democratizing capacity and the formation of a global citizenship, although few indicate that they participate actively in it.