FIGURE 8: ONLINE ACTIVITIES (TAG CLOUD) USER EXPERIENCE STUDY Q9

“In a few words, what is the main reason (or reasons) you go online?”

It should be noted that the data collection for this part of the study was completed a few months before the rapid growth of social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Bebo (late 2006 – early 2007), which have since become very popular amongst younger users. Such sites are particularly well suited to satisfy the need to keep in touch with friends and family. Yet, the civic and active potential of social networking sites – and of Web 2.0 in general – merits discussion and it would be interesting to use these

findings as a baseline for future research.

The analysis of the users’ online routines showed that most participants maintain a very restricted diet of web activities. Almost no references to free, aimless or open-ended browsing or alternative uses were found (let alone to creating content or engaging with political or broadly civic issues, which is consistent with the findings of Couldry 2006).

The “open-endedness” of one’s approach to the internet is a useful indicator of active or passive medium use. The close- and open-ended binary is, indeed, a schematic and perhaps oversimplified way of making an analytical distinction between:

- an habitual and instrumental use of the net based on a functional, utilitarian approach (i.e. only using the net to get what one needs)

- and a pattern of use that is more communitarian and interactive (contributing as well as receiving); embedded in everyday life (covering all aspects of human activity); and crucially more fluid, in terms of coming across material that one might not usually encounter or be inclined to agree with.

While these two patterns of use are not always mutually exclusive, our data strongly suggest that the big majority of the young people taking part in this study made instrumental and functional uses of the net, also known as “directed browsing” (Gibbs 2008), i.e. focused and systematic browsing aimed at a target.

In his seminal study of uses and gratifications on the internet, Hunter (1997) argued that:

“Browsing is not a singular function, but rather an extension of the cognitive and entertainment functions… By surfing the web, users seem to be experiencing the thrill and excitement of exploring a new world, which is part of the entertainment function”.

This description of browsing highlights the gratifications that the user receives by the mere process of surfing the web. However, a lot of the discourses on the medium’s structural potential evolved in the 1990s i.e. at a time of momentous innovation, in which the novelty of the medium per se provided considerable gratification for users. The qualitative parts of our study (both the write-in individual responses and the open-ended group discussions) produced very little evidence of users enjoying open-ended surfing:

almost all of the participants reported using the internet in a directed way, with only two participants making any reference to open-ended browsing. Overall, our findings concur with previous studies which found that people use the internet instrumentally rather than as a habit (Kaye and Johnson 2002; Ko 2000; Papacharissi and Rubin 2000):

RG: So what sort of sites do you guys normally go to, like in your everyday life?

#2.10-AB: Well the ones that I use, usually for a reason… shopping, online banking…

"I only really get on the internet for a specific reason, I wouldn’t just sit and just browse around… just for the fun of it" [#1.01-AW]

Recent evidence shows that this pattern of use is becoming widespread amongst internet users at large. In his 2008 annual report on web habits, Nielsen noted that:

“Instead of dawdling on websites many users want simply to reach a site quickly, complete a task and leave. Most ignore efforts to make them linger and are suspicious of promotions designed to hold their attention. Instead, many are "hot potato" driven and just want to get a specific task completed” (BBC Online 2008).

While this finding may sound like a truism, it has vast implications in terms of, for example, narrow search patterns (Kim 2009) and minimal time spent on a new website (e.g. Nielsen 2007a found that users spend an average of 30 seconds on the homepage and less than 2 minutes on the entire site before deciding to abandon it).

5.2 …Seeking Convenience and Awareness

A further probe into our respondents’ motivations for using the internet strengthens the view that their approach to the medium is more consumerist that creative, and more passive than active. Users were asked to consider the extent to which 19 different motivations for using the internet applied to themselves.

Easiness of finding information, keeping in touch with existing friends and family, and researching for work and study were, once again, the three factors that received

universally high ratings (with means close to 4.5 out of 5 – marked in purple in Figure 9), mirroring the two primary online activities described above. A range of other factors that could be classified as consumerist or passive motivations, in the sense that they do not require active participation or contribution on the part of users, followed in the chart (marked in orange). Most of the more interactive, creative or innovative motivations – such as sharing experiences with others, meeting new people, taking part in collective action, belonging to a community or group, and “expressing myself” – appear at the bottom of the chart with means of 2.58 or less (marked in blue). The one visible exception was getting “more points of view / learning about issues”, which combines elements of action and passivity.

An additional measurement was employed in order to establish whether young people are engaging in their own, alternative ways, through activities that do not fall within the traditional boundaries of established political institutions and processes. Such active uses would include volunteering for, or donating money to, a community or cause; writing or discussing about public affairs with others; creating music, films, books or other forms of art. More consumerist or passive activities would include following the news, shopping, learning about issues and enjoying (but not creating) various forms of art, such as

listening to music, reading books etc.

FIGURE 9: INTERNET MOTIVATIONS