Kraut, R., Mukhopadhyay, T., Szczypula, J., Kiesler, S., & Scherlis, B. (2000). Information and communication: Alternative uses of the Internet in households. Information Systems Research, 10, 287-303.
An earlier version was published as:
Kraut, Robert, Mukhopadhyay, Tridas, Szczypula, Janusz, Kiesler, Sara, and Scherlis, William (1998). Communication and Information: Alternative Uses of the Internet in Households. Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 1998 v.1. p.368-375. Copyright 1998 ACM
Abstract: The Internet has been characterized
as a superhighway to information and as a high-tech extension of the home
telephone. How are people really using the Internet? The history of previous
technologies that support interpersonal communication suggests that
communication may be a more important use and determinant of participants'
commitment to the Internet than is information acquisition and entertainment.
Operationalizing interpersonal communication as the use of electronic mail and
information acquisition and entertainment as the use of the World Wide Web, we
analyzed longitudinal data from a field trial of 229 individuals in 110
households during their first year on the Internet. The results show that
interpersonal communication is a stronger driver of Internet use than are
information and entertainment applications.