Next Generation Internet Users

Abstract

One of the latest social trends around the Internet has been the rapid and wide scale diffusion of portable devices such as smartphones, tablets, and readers. This chapter argues that this is not a simple shift away from the personal computer-based to mobile Internet world, but an illustration of how the Internet has become our computer, and users are employing multiple devices that enable them to make it even more central to their everyday life. Using survey research on Internet use in Britain, the chapter shows how this new pattern of Internet access is creating the “Next Generation User” (NGU). The analysis identifies who these users are, and how this pattern of use changes how people use the Internet, but creates a new layer of inequality that is defining digital divides in society.

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