In this article, the authors attempt to discern the characteristic features of social inequality that are manifested with respect to the access that students from the different social strata have to the new information technologies. They analyze the characteristics of the use of the new information technologies by eleventh-grade students and vocational-technical students. The findings are drawn from a sociological survey of vocational-technical students, a survey conducted on the basis of a similar program of research. The sample consisted of 713 vocational-technical students (407 boys and 316 girls); the subsample was 339 eleventh-graders (176 boys and 163 girls). They look at aspects such as the place of interaction with a computer in the structure of leisure time, the role played by the Internet in the information space, and characteristics of students' introduction to the use of the computer and the Internet. The comparative study shows that school plays a positive role in ensuring equal opportunities for youngsters from weaker social strata with respect to familiarity and involvement with the new information technologies. The authors argue that there's a need for a comprehensive program to study the role of the new information technologies in education, one that organically incorporates psychological, pedagogical, and culturological methods of analysis. (Contains 3 tables and 1 figure.)