Digital Literacy Profiles among Korean Adolescents after COVID-19: The Role of Smart Technology Experiences
AUTHOR : 이상은, 김도연, 편지애, 최나야
INFORMATION : page. 177~188 / 2025 Vol.32 No.4
ABSTRACT
The study examines digital literacy profiles among adolescents following COVID-19 and investigates how smart technology experiences influence profile membership. Data from 471 adolescents from the Korean Media Panel Survey were analyzed using t-tests, latent profile analysis, and multinomial logistic regression. The results are as follows. First, adolescents with greater experience in smart technologies such as metaverse, cloud services, conversational artificial intelligence (AI), and wearable devices showed significantly higher digital literacy. Second, four latent profiles were identified: "low digital information", "average", "high digital information" and "overall high" groups. Third, girls demonstrated higher likelihood of advanced profile membership, and adolescents who have wearable devices at home but no metaverse access were more likely in the "overall high" than the "average" group. These findings contribute to highlighting the diverse nature of digital literacy among digital-native adolescents and provide implications for educational strategies that foster equitable and comprehensive literacy development in rapidly evolving technological contexts.