The development of ICT and its implementation in different areas of our society led to profound social change. Pierre Lévy (2005) talks about the concept of cyberspace. He assumes that the meaning of a "new medium that comes from the global interconnection of computers" (p.32) that the "digital technologies have emerged, then, as the infrastructure of cyberspace, new means of communication, socialization, organizational and transaction, but also new market information and knowledge "(ibid, p.32). Thus, e-mail, chat, forums and social networks are the new tools of interaction and communication that enable new forms of social aggregations in the global network. This generalization of the social use of information technology and communication has boosted new practices and ways of being in society. According to the Markt, Bahrain Internet (2009), in Portugal the number of Internet users increased almost ten times, over the past 13 years. This study shows that young people are making more use of the Internet, and the group between 15 and 17 years who presents the highest values (96.7%) in contrast to 7.3% of elderly over 64 that make use of it. Are also discrepancies in use in relation to gender. It is men who have a higher utilization rate (62.19%), contrary to women (46.5%). For Gago (2002) corporate information network allows not only the multiplication and diversification of opportunities for self-learning, but the "new social form that is extended as the new explosion in informal associations on the web" (p. 56) as well. The use of ICT in education has been a priority in most countries in Europe in the last decade. However, progress has been irregular both between countries and between schools in the same country. Since the school is a place of many cultures, sensibilities and socio-economic levels, the Ministry of Portuguese Education promoted the Technological Plan for Education which aims to improve the fundamental performance of students, ensuring equal opportunities to access equipment -- computers and internet. Our research aimed to know how a group of youngsters Portuguese perceived the role of ICT in society and the use they give to it.

Our study’s sample was done from youngsters who sent us well done questionnaires, a total of 106. About the gender of the subjects of the sample, 44, 3% were male and 55, 7% female. About the age, the minimum is 14, the maximum is 22 and the mean is 16 years old. About the Education of parents’ level, it is between 1st cycle and Higher Education. 24.2% of parents have higher education, 23.1% by the 1st cycle and 22% high school. About mothers, 29% have high school, 27% higher education and 19% the 3rd cycle. The youngsters’ collect data was done through a questionnaire with three parts. The first is about the identification. In the second part it was requested the importance of ICT and when they use the ICT. The third part composed by 16 items, was built with the structure of a Likert’s scale.

In response to the “ICT are a great help to ...” the 3 main ideas are “communicate with friends” (25.1%), “Understand the reality that surrounds us” (20%) and, finally, “Help to do homework” (18.9%), regardless of age, gender and parental education. In response to the “Generally I use ICT to ...” the first 3 answers were “Communicate” (29.6%), “Learning / Do the homework” (21.7%), “Research” (21.7%) and “Leisure / Play” (20.8%), regardless of age, gender and parental education. Finally, the majority of these youngsters found in the ICT a way to avoid discrimination among students, to do not increase the social and to not cause the exclusion of people. It is a great opportunity for young people who live far away from large cities and these have more difficulties in its use. This is also the case of older people. As people with less culture are concern opinions are divided as to whether they have, or not, less skills to use ICT. The ICT is considered important for children and young people in difficulty and redefine the way people interact and communicate. In culture matters, ICT is considered to help understanding different cultures allowing more cultural and linguistic diversification.