[Air-l] (no subject)

Homero Gil de Zuniga hgildezuniga at wisc.edu
Tue May 8 10:17:55 PDT 2007



Interesting Pew's report about technology users...
The first paragraph is very revealing. Most of "us" may have/use a  
lot of technology in our lives but still we don't engage that much  
into interactive and/or selfexpressive tasks... which are essential  
to crystallization of civic engagement or political participation.
Also worth noting the little quiz to find out what type of info tech  
user one is. I just found out that according to the Pew, they claim I  
am a "technological omnivore"... Nothing that I didn't know before.
Cheers,
HGZ

-----------------
A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users

Fully 85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones - and most
use both. Many also have broadband connections, digital cameras and
video game systems. Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the
connectivity, the capacity for self expression, and the interactivity of
modern information technology is a modest 8%.

Fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship to
modern information technology. Some of this diffidence is driven by
people's concerns about information overload; some is related to
people's sense that their gadgets have more capacity than users can
master; some is connected to people's sense that things like blogging
and creating home-brew videos for YouTube is not for them; and some is
rooted in people's inability to afford or their unwillingness to buy the
gear that would bring them into the digital age.

These findings come from the Pew Internet Project's typology of
information and communication technology (ICT) users. The typology
categorizes Americans based on the amount of ICTs they possess, how they
use them, and their attitudes about the role of ICTs are in their lives.
Ten separate groups emerge in the typology.

Here is a link to the complete report:
http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/213/report_display.asp

What kind of information technology user are you? Answer a few questions
to see where you fit in the new typology of information and
communication technology users developed by the Pew Internet Project.
Take our quiz here:
http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/



More information about the Air-L mailing list