What's the use? : Internet and information behavior in everyday life

Abstract

A widespread access to computers and the Internet at home signals a change in the "information environment" of everyday life. This thesis deals with how this new situation can be studied and understood. Based on the assumption that Internet should be seen as an informationsystem that is finding its place alongside more familiar information systems in everyday life, the objective is set out to develop a conceptual framework of information behavior in everyday life. The empirical material consists of previous research on informationbehavior (predominantly from the Information Studies field of research), and of qualitative case studies of ten information users in the context of their nonwork everyday lives, collected by means of diaries and interviews. The primary result is a model which offers a viable framework forunderstanding information behavior in everyday life, with the characteristics that: It considers all forms of information behavior; it makes it possible to study information systems in concert that previously have been studied only separately; it goes deeply into the circumstances of everyday life; it offers means to understand the significance of social relations and communities for individual information behavior. The secondary result offers insights into particular user behavior concerning the Internet in relation to other information systems in everyday life.

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