Search results

This study aims to explore children’s cognitions about data flows online and their understandings of algorithms, often referred to as algorithmic literacy or algorithmic folk theories, in their everyday uses of social media and YouTube. The authors focused on children ages 8 to 11, as these are the ages when most youth acquire their own device and use social media and YouTube, despite platform age requirements.

Nine focus groups with 34 socioeconomically, racially and ethnically diverse children (8–11 years) were conducted in California. Groups discussed data flows online, digital privacy, algorithms and personalization across platforms.

Children had several misconceptions about privacy risks, privacy policies, what kinds of data are collected about them online and how algorithms work. Older children had more complex and partially accurate theories about how algorithms determine the content they see online, compared to younger children. All children were using YouTube and/or social media despite age gates and children used few strategies to manage the flow of their personal information online.

The paper includes implications for digital and algorithmic literacy efforts, improving the design of privacy consent practices and user controls, and regulation for protecting children’s privacy online.

Research has yet to explore what socioeconomically, racially and ethnically diverse children understand about datafication and algorithms online, especially in middle childhood.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the metaverse platform in a social context to better understand the future of this tool in tourism cities and how this can help to improve the well-being of residents in both digital and physical scenarios.

In this paper, the current and probable developments in the metaverse, and its use in tourism cities and companies have been investigated. Moreover, this study develops, collects and examines the main metaverse definitions by expert authors and organizations as a methodology to ensure the transparency and credibility of the metaverse analysis.

Findings suggest that the fusion of the metaverse and tourism cities must create residents’ services and experiences in the new MetaTourPolis to help interact and connect citizens with the city’s institutions and companies, as well as make tourism cities more attractive, innovative, environmentally friendly and healthier places to live. Metaverse will bring new changes for residents and tourists, in fact, this virtual platform is already changing and improving the residents’ quality of life and people with disabilities in tourism cities. For instance, the metaverse platform has been implemented in Seoul, Santa Monica and Dubai MetaTourPolis to interact with their residents, including people with disabilities, to resolve bureaucratic and administrative problems, avoiding this group and the rest of the residents travelling by bus or car to the city’s institutions. In addition, several metaverse applications based on softbot tutors or metaverse virtual social centres have been developed to improve blind and impaired people, and elderly people’ quality of life, respectively.

A new concept called “MetaTourPolis” has been included to stage the relationship between tourism cities and the metaverse platform, where the fusion of metaverse and the new tourism polis of the 21st century will be at the service of citizens, tourists and companies, to create more sustainable, efficient, quantitative and environmental tourism cities.

University students’ awareness, knowledge and attitude towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) contribute to their implementation and localisation. Understanding students’ perspectives in open and distance e-Learning institutions (ODELs) is crucial. This study aims to examine variations in students’ SDG knowledge and awareness across socio-economic characteristics, their engagement in SDGs and their identification of opportunities, gaps and priorities for implementation.

An online survey (n = 1,009) gathered responses from students across various socio-demographic variables. Descriptive and non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis Test statistics were used to examine differences.

Students recognised the importance of SDG knowledge across all levels (p < 0.05, except for gender). The expectation for increased SDG content in the curriculum was high. A significant difference (p < 0.001) in these expectations was found across all variables except gender. However, involvement in SDGs and participation in related platforms and workshops was marginal to non-existent. These results guide universities in promoting SDGs to enhance sustainability-focused education strategies.

The article outlines measures universities can take to evaluate their contributions towards SDGs implementation, particularly in open and distance learning institutions.

This study aims to identify how Spanish consumers’ extrinsic preferences for food have evolved by examining the extant literature on food preferences in Spain, focusing on food-related attributes and food-related values.

This study is based on a synthetic review of the extant academic literature on Spanish consumer preferences for food-related attributes and food-related values from the mid-20th to the 21st century. This study uses key economic and social milestones that are most likely to influence food value chain actors to show how consumer preferences have evolved over the study period.

Spanish consumer food attribute preferences expanded as the food sector of the nation continued to grow, and value preferences showed a similar pattern from the mid-20th to the 21st century. The drivers of these preferences were trust, lifestyle, education (campaigns), sociodemographic factors and purchasing power.

Evaluating the extant literature’s contribution to consumer preferences for food-related attributes and values is important because it can aid in understanding the hierarchy and variety of consumers’ food preferences as well as the factors that drive these preferences. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explore how Spanish consumer preferences evolved between the mid-20th and 21st centuries.