Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy
Blown to Bits: How the New Economics of Information Transforms Strategy
Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture
Play Between Worlds: Exploring Online Game Culture
Enjoyment: lessons from Karasek
Funology
Impact of the Internet on our lives: Male and female personal perspectives
Computers in Human Behavior
Co-creation and user-generated content-elderly people's user requirements
Computers in Human Behavior
Long-term study of safe Internet use of young children
Computers & Education
Digital divide across the European Union
Information and Management
International Journal of Human-Computer Studies
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The purpose of this study is to better understand the digital divide by identifying the variety of ways in which people in Europe use the Internet. First, by using cluster analysis on survey data (N=12,666/age: 16-74 years) from Eurostat on Internet usage in Norway, Sweden, Austria, the UK, and Spain, we identified five user types: Non-Users (42%), Sporadic Users (18%), Instrumental Users (18%), Entertainment Users (10%), and Advanced Users (12%). These user types differ in their distributions over country, age, access, household members, and gender. An alarming finding is that 60% of the population was found to be either Non-Users or Sporadic Users, which reflects a large digital divide in Europe. Second, we conducted a logistic regression to identify the predictors for different user types. We found on a cross-national level that age and Internet access are the most salient predictors, whereas gender and household seems to be less relevant. However, the amount of variance explained differs between countries. We also suggested a future increase in the digital divide between the identified user types-a user type divide. The user typology and the identified predictors might help researchers, practitioners, and decision makers to better understand Internet users and the multi-complex variations among individuals and countries. This knowledge will also serve as a means to understand the digital divide by providing a more nuanced perspective on Europeans' unequal usage of the Internet and participation in an increasingly digital society.