[Air-l] research on internet adoption

[Maria Bakardjieva]

Hi Lee,

I am happy to see your question as I have always been curious about it and
do not feel it has attracted the attention it deserves. I have done
qualitative research in that area - my first study was conducted in the late
1990s, but some of the responses referred to an earlier period. It has been
published in my book "Internet Society: The Internet in Everyday Life",
2005, Sage, and in a few other places. In case you are interested in reading
it, I can send you a few pieces. 

I am analyzing data from another project at the moment. The interviews were
conducted in 2002-3, and the responses to the question 'Why you wanted to
connect to the Internet?' are quite different from those at the earlier
stage. 

Regards,

Maria


-----Original Message-----
From: air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org
[mailto:air-l-bounces at listserv.aoir.org] On Behalf Of Lee Rainie
Sent: Tuesday, March 06, 2007 12:41 PM
To: air-l at listserv.aoir.org
Subject: [Air-l] research on internet adoption

I am looking for help locating research about why people were drawn to
the internet in various periods, starting in the early 1990s. There
seems to be a decent amount of work focused on why firms large and small
embraced the internet, but not nearly as many studies about individual
users and their motives for going online in the first place. I am
particularly interested in the role that life circumstances played (e.g.
Did users embrace the internet first at their workplaces or schools and
then in their private lives? Were they coaxed online by friends who
already had access?). And I'm interested in research about the online
applications that were particularly appealing to newbies (e.g. email,
news, health information, e-commerce, adult content, etc.). 

 

Finally, I'd appreciate knowing if new users' motives for adoption
changed over time. Were those who first hopped online in 1997 drawn
online by different factors from those that drew earlier adopters in,
say, 1993-1994?

 

Thanks very much,

Lee Rainie

 

**********

Director

Pew Internet & American Life Project

1615 L Street NW - Suite 700

Washington, D.C. 20036

202-419-4510

http://www.pewinternet.org 

 

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