Digital living - The impact (or otherwise) of the Internet on everyday life

This article examines the impact of the Internet on the everyday lives of U.K. citizens through the integration of quantitative longitudinal time-use data and qualitative interviews. It shows that there is little significant change in people's time use that can be associated with their acquisition fan Internet connection and demonstrates the oversimplicity of the impact model for understanding the role of the Internet in everyday life. Instead, it suggests that lifestyle and/or lifestage transitions may trigger adoption of the Internet and, simultaneously, changes in domestic time use. It also demonstrates that Internet usage is too coarse a unit for sensible analysis. Rather researchers need to consider the patterns of usage of the various applications or services that the Internet delivers.