Children as consumers: reflection on cell phone usage and its effect on students’ academic performance

Abstract

This article reflects on the effect between the symbolic usage of cell phones and the students’ academic performance in fourth and fifth grade. To this end, this study had the participation of 32 students from fourth and fifth grade at Mercedes Nariño Women's High School in the city of Bogotá, their ages range from 8 to 12 years old. The main problem is symbolic consumption, understood as the relevance that consumers give to possessions, being these ones a means to establish social relations and, in turn, build their own being or identity. In this sense, a reflective exercise is proposed to understand the link between this phenomenon and the participants’ academic performance. Regarding the methodology, this research used a qualitative approach, as for the design; the following interpretative frameworks were used: virtual ethnography, phenomenology and, finally, grounded theory, a method that was complemented through the implementation of the software Atlas.ti to analyze qualitative data. To conclude, it was possible to determine that the participants fully identify different cultural symbols that revolve around cell phone usage and the social dynamics around it. In addition, it was possible to identify the influence of cell phone usage regarding students’ academic performance. Finally, the importance of cell phone usage is recognized to support pedagogical and didactic processes that promote appropriation and creation of knowledge.