Cambodian Youth Making Connections

Abstract

This article explores how urban Cambodian youth are creating connections and exploring the opportunities that new technology offers for their social and community development within the Khmer diaspora. It contends that these young Cambodians are using ICT to define and express themselves as both individuals and members of a distinct new cohort. This study was conducted from July-September 2002 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia as part of the Master of Arts in Communications at RMIT University. A comparison of qualitative and quantitative data allowed this study to develop a rounded profile of young Cambodians’ (aged 18-24) ICT usage habits. ICT are defined as mobile phones, SMS, the Internet, the World Wide Web and Chat. This article contends that this uptake of ICT highlights the emergence of an urban elite, a digital elite whose use of ICT is helping to define the new generation and secondly facilitate connections that build community within the Khmer diaspora.