ENTERTAINMENT, COMMUNICATION, BUSINESS OR ACADEMIC USE? A STUDY ON INTERNET CAFÉ USERS IN WESTERN PROVINCE OF SRI LANKA

The internet undoubtedly opened up a huge world for its users by just on one click. With the increase popularity of the internet as a versatile tool, it has become a kingpin for many people in the world. People can access internet from home, offices, universities, schools and for the general public, internet cafés are a main public access point of internet. Internet cafes satisfy the entertainment, communication, business and academic needs of its users. The main objective of this study was to examine the level of usage of internet cafés for the purpose of entertainment, communication, business and academic of the internet users in Sri Lanka based on the demographic factors of them. A randomly drawn sample of 150 café users was selected in the western province of Sri Lanka and a questionnaire was used to collect primary data. Frequency analysis, ANOVA and post-hoc test were used to analyze the data gathered. The findings of this study revealed that majority of Sri Lankan internet café users are young, unmarried student males who passed GCE O/L and low income earners. Also majority of café users use cafes for the entertainment purpose. When using internet cafes, male and female internet café users are significantly different and also professionally qualified café users are significantly different from lower GCE O/L, GCE O/L and GCE A/L qualified café users. The above findings conclude that internet café users purpose of using cafes varied according to their demographic backgrounds and it is suggested that internet café owners should consider these differences when providing services to them. Also the government should provide better telecommunication infrastructure in order to offer a quality service to the general publicKey Words: Internet Cafes, Entertainment, Communication, Business, AcademicFor full paper: fmscresearch@sjp.ac.lk