Internet access and use: concepts, measures and analytic model / abstract

Understanding, describing and explaining internet access and use, as well as the use of other information and communication technologies, as mobile phones, are subjects that nowadays attract the attention of many different researchers and professionals, including social scientists and librarians. From the perspective of social scientists, the multidimensional and complex characteristics of the internet seem to point out to the importance of understanding the multiple aspects of internet use and how these uses relate to the social and cultural characteristics of users. Unveiling these processes will hopefully help to diminish internet use differences between individuals and also contribute to find out how internet use can have an effect in people’s or communities’ lives..