Amie Brittle December 10, 2009 Media Research Internet Use Among College Students
Research Phase One: Introduction: The internet is quickly becoming a part of our everyday lives. It is hard to even remember back to a time where one did not have access to limitless knowledge by just ‘jumping’ online. Speaking from personal experience, I cannot imagine my college career without it. The purpose of this study is to better understand internet use among college students at La Salle University. The research question we will look at is how do college students use the internet? This is an important study as the current college generation has used the internet in a way no previous generation has used it before. We have aged side by side with the expansion of this new technological world. This study is important for someone in advertising and design who wishes to aim their work towards college students. If a company wishes to advertise on the internet, it is important that they understand how and why college students are using the internet in order to market efficiently. If someone wishes to design something geared towards college students, then it is important for them to understand college students’ use of the internet as well so they can understand what they are interested in, what keeps their attention, and what they are doing with their time spent online. Background of the Problem: Before starting research, someone interested in internet use among college students first should have some background information on the subject. Today’s college student has been using the internet for years, 20% of whom began using it between the ages of 5 and 8, meaning they have a good understanding of how to use the internet and what it is about. 95% of college students own their own computer, and nearly all individuals who attend college have access to computers on their campuses. 78% of
college students have admitted to going online with no purpose but to browse, compared to the 64% of other internet users (Jones 1-2). This is important because it shows that a person does not have to go on the internet with a specific goal in mind, but simply can just peruse through information freely. This would be a noteworthy fact for advertisers attempting to target the college demographic. Where are college students spending their time when they go online? Of course, this aspect of the internet cannot be brought up without mentioning facebook. “It accounts for 20% of web requests. 85% of undergrads are signed up to it, as well as a third of post grads, and they seem to use it regularly”(Poulter 1).College students’ favorite and top visited sites include Google, Yahoo and Myspace (Parlin 1). 24% of students also participate in online bulletin boards, groups or chats, with many students also writing their own blogs (Lowe 1). E-mail is also an aspect of the internet worth mentioning, however, according to Joeph Poulter, “Students regard email as a formal communication channel, for keeping in touch with “older people” such as tutors and parents. For communicating with each other, they use instant messaging. A very large proportion are signed up to MSN, and Skype is also used.” But how much time are college students spending just plain ‘browsing’ on the internet? According to a survey conducted by Imedia, 43% of students that completed their survey spend 10 hours or more a week on the internet (Lowe 1). Internet is positively affecting a college student’s education experience as well. “Internet use is a staple of college students' educational experience. They use the Internet to communicate with professors and classmates, to do research, and to access library materials” (Jones 2). 59% of college students surveyed by Campus Technology
reported using online study aids, 78% of those students saying they use online quizzing, the most popular school-related use of the Internet (Nagal 1). An interesting article that I uncovered tackled the question of if there is a different in regard to race and ethnicity with internet use. The study concluded to state that “digital divide” is occurring on college campuses, meaning that there is a division between blacks and whites that parallels the educational achievement gap between these groups. It also concluded that study habits of a student are directly related to their internet use. Those who spend more hours per week studying also are spending more hours per week on the internet. And finally, in this specific demographic that this study occurred, results showed that African Americans reported less time on the internet as well and less time studying than other races and ethnicities (Korgen 3). Can a individual’s gender also be taken into account in regards to internet use then? Yes, according to Mary Liebert, females spend less time on the internet than males, but she goes on to states that the gender gap is narrowing, and will soon even out (Liebel 855). Focus Group Analysis: In the beginning of October at La Salle University, 3 focus groups were held concentrating on La Salle students and their use of media. These focus groups were conducted in La Salle’s Communication Center by Dr. Donna Celano. Each focus group was made up of La Salle students ranging from freshman to graduate students. Their majors varied from communication, to American studies, criminal justice, biology, public relations, marketing, English, business, and digital arts and multimedia design. The first focus group consisted of 8 people, 5 males; 3 freshman, a sophomore, a junior, and a senior, and 3 females; 2 seniors and a junior. The second group consisted of 10
individuals, 2 males; a freshman and a graduate student, and 8 females; 2 freshman, a sophomore, 2 juniors, and 3 seniors. And the 3rd focus group was made up of 6 people, 3 males; a sophomore, junior, and senior, and 3 females; a freshman and 2 seniors. The section of these students’ media use that I will focus on will be internet usage. Most of the participants find themselves using the internet for hours on end in a single day. The amount of time dedicated to the internet in a day varied greatly, one person stating that she “does not use it if she did not have any work”, and another person admitting she would spend “up to 12 hours a day” online, which is a significant amount considering that this is half of the hours allotted in a day. Averaging out the amount of time the participants said they spent online a day, it can be concluded that participants in these focus groups spend around 4 hours a day online. Lost of time also seemed to be a common theme amongst the participants. The time “goes by so fast” that they do not even realize how much time they are spending online. One female explained that a “10 minute break turns into an hour.” The hours spent on the internet also usually consist of multitasking. A few students admitting to being on the internet while in class, and nearly all the students declared to having the internet up while doing homework. Out of the 24 students who participated, everyone had a facebook and found themselves checking it constantly, most of whom checked it daily. Most admitted that this is where their internet usage would take off, leading them into unknown wildernesses of the World Wide Web. One student stated “You’ll find a link on facebook that takes you to youtube, then from youtube you’ll have to go to IMDB to check the actors, then you’ll end up on Wikipedia for 6 hours clicking on various links and the next
thing you know it’s 4 in the morning.” Many of the students had similar statements, and explained that there are limitless distractions and it is difficult to not be side tracked. Youtube was also a common theme found throughout the focus groups. 4 participants explained that they usually have youtube up while doing homework, using it to play music in the background as they do their work. This goes along with the idea of multi-tasking while using the internet. The main difference found between males and females would be what they chose to do with their time online. The males seem interested in sports sites, such as ESPN’s webpage, fantasy football, and unspecified sports blogs. The females mentioned shopping online, using websites such as Forever 21, Urban Outfitters, Juicy, and Bebe. One female also mentioned gossiping sites, such as Perez Hilton and US Magazine. Other noteworthy information that would come out of these focus groups would be how mobile devices are changing internet usage. No one in the first focus group said anything about internet on their mobile devices, but in the second and third focus groups 5 people explained how their usage has changed with these devices. Their daily internet usage went up greatly when they had a device with them at all times that allows them to reach the internet. One student stated that her “use has gone up 3 hours because of my blackberry.” Upperclassmen explained how their internet usage has changed from freshman year, in which sides seemed torn in deciding if usage had gone up, or gone down. One fact that all the upperclassmen seemed to agree on was that as their “classes get harder they use the internet to research more.” The upperclassmen felt they use the internet “more in education” than they did freshman year, such as needing to use scholarly articles online. Another way internet use has changed between freshman and senior
year would be in regards to email. One student stated that she “checks her email 5 or 6 times a day, as classes are more specific.” It also seems that upperclassmen receive assignment through email more often than the lowerclassmen. Before the focus groups where conducted, I believed that everyone would express some interest in facebook, whether it be positive or negative. I also expected multi-tabs and multitasking to be a huge theme in the focus groups, especially when it came to homework and research. I came to these hypotheses as I myself am a college student who uses the internet so I feel like I have a good understanding of it. Also, I have friends who are college students and I have a good understanding of how they use the internet as well. After the focus groups, I feel like I was correct in my hypotheses, but I also feel like I learnt a lot I would never have if these focus groups had not existed. I was surprised to discover that the participants said they would leave their internet up all the time, regardless of if they were using it or not. I think this fact makes it difficult to conduct internet usage research, as the computer is technically connected to the internet, but no one is using it. Should this be calculated in internet usage research, or does a person have to be physically using the internet? Also, with all the multitasking while watching TV, doing homework, and more, how do we measure internet use accurately? Should we count youtube playing music in the background of a student doing homework as internet usage? Issues that occurred throughout the focus group included the lack of qualitative data. Although I did get good information about internet usage, I cannot technically calculate the average time spent online as all the information we received in the focus group was not mathematical. The question asking “‘how much time do you spend on the internet” should not have been asked in this focus group, as these groups concentrate on
explaining the why and how of the research. Also, the participants we gathered for the focus group was not an accurate representation of La Salle as a whole. We had too many communication majors in order for this research to be generalized to all of La Salle’s students. The focus group proved beneficial as it gave me direction to lead my intensive interviews, knowing the ‘hot topics’ of internet and better understanding what I was looking for. Not only was this research beneficial, it was cheap and easy to conduct. I was only responsible for finding someone to participate in the focus group, and Dr. Celano did the rest. The ability to be flexible with questions also helped, and because of this aspect of the focus group, I feel we got better data than if there were set questions. There were also no breaks in conversation, and I feel like a single person’s response sparked a response among the other participants. Intensive Interviews: Participants in the intensive interview included Katie McNeill, a senior religion and psychology double major, Colleen Friel, a senior religion major, and Tricia Cavanaugh, a senior biology and psychology double major. Each interview lasted around 20 minutes long, and was conducted by me, Amie Brittle. All the respondents are alike in that they are current residents of La Salle University’s on campus housing. These interviews are important as they provide researchers with answers to why one feels a certain way. These interviews aim at exposing a person’s hidden beliefs, as opposed to a focus group that expresses a group’s attitude. I choose these 3 individuals as I know them well, and figured that they would not mind giving me 20 minutes of their time, as well as them not hesitating to open up to me and being honest.
One notable finding would be the subjects’ relationship with facebook. They all admitted that it is annoying at times, but that they are intrigued by it as it helps them stay in contact with high school friends. Katie admitted, “I use facebook to check up on people I know, but would probably not talk to if it were not for this website.” I also believe it is noteworthy to mention that these individuals she is checking up on do not know she is looking at them. In addition, Tricia made a good point about facebook by mentioning that she could not imagine what going through college would be like without it. “It’s a great way to stay in touch with friends, as well as family,” although she did say that she hopes her parents never get one. She also stated that she uses it as a news source. “I know it probably makes me sound lame, but when Michael Jackson died, I found out on facebook first.” It would seem then that facebook is serving as a news source as well as a social networking site. When asked about their top 3 favorite sites (other than facebook), Colleen and Katie contributed their top sites to their procrastination, and mentioned my life is average, lamebook, postsecret, and texts from last night. Colleen said “These websites serve no purpose to me, but give me a quick chuckle and distract me from my work.” They use these sites purely for their own entertainment, and the sites provide no other value. Tricia’s top 3 sites differed, and she mentioned a few educational sites, such as national geographic, and webmd, however, she did mention fail blog, which, like Katie’s and Colleen’s sites, does not provide any value other than entertainment. Another site Colleen mentioned was Hulu, which is a site where one can watch movies and shows online, which is noteworthy as people are using the internet as a gateway into other forms of media.
I also asked why they double-task when online, already knowing that they do indeed double-task. When asked this, they all blankly stared at me for a few seconds, as if they had never thought of this before. Colleen answered, “It just feels natural, I always have tons of windows up, TV on, or music playing. I need noise.” Katie plainly answered “Procrastination, in regards to work I would do anything to put it off for a few more minutes.” Tricia answered, “If I have work to do, I make sure there is no distractions, but if I am not doing work, I am just browsing and don’t have to give anything my full attention.” These answers provide me with the solidification that college kids doubletask when on the internet, and provide me with 3 different reasons why. They all also mentioned how their friends would share links and materials on websites with one another. These links would typically be posted on their facebook pages by friends, and were very individualistic to their different needs and interest. I found this interesting in the fact that surfing and using the internet seems like it is a social thing, even when one surfs alone. They also metioned a different aspect of social internet use by them showing people things on the web on a single computer. Not only do people share information electronically, but they do it physically in person as well. These interviews provided me with vast details and accounts. I feel like these respondents were much more honest and complete in their answers than the answers we received in the focus groups. Of course this could be due to two different things, the fact that these participants are my friends, or because these interviews were one-on-one. I also found out interesting thoughts and ideas that I was unaware I would receive or unaware I was looking for it. For example, I was unaware facebook would be such a big part of my research, but after Katie (the first one I interviewed) talked a good deal about
it and provided a lot of interesting information, I added it to my questions so I could ask my other two interviewees. However, these interviews were also difficult in the fact that I am close with all 3 of the participants. When deciding on who to interview, I thought this fact would be beneficial to me as they would not be shy, reluctant, would be trusting of me, and willing to sit down for 20 minutes to perform the interview. However, after asking them and them agreeing enthusiastically, I found it difficult to sit down with them for 20 minutes without any outside factors affecting the interview, such as additions to previous outside conversations and inside jokes, I constantly found myself telling them, as well as reminding myself, that we needed to concentrate and stay on track. I lost it in the interview with Katie when she provided me with a ridiculous response and I could not stop laughing. This was very unprofessional of me, and had this been a real intensive interview, this behavior would have been completely unacceptable. I have learned that one should not use their close friends in these types of interviews, and it is important to use someone who will be dedicated to the interview and take it serious. If this research were to be repeated, this would have to be taken into account. Also, I received so much detail and information in these interviews, that it was difficult to pick out what was important and worth noting.
Research Phase Two: Introduction: Speculations can be made about Internet use among college students, but they will purely be assumptions. If one wishes to truly understand college students and their Internet usage, they must turn to college students themselves. Through college students, one can gain a better understanding of their basic Internet use, as well as receiving key insights into how college students view the Internet and how they feel about it. The research question we will look at is how do college students use the Internet? This is important to better understand as the current college generation has used the Internet in a way no previous generation has used it before. From the research conducted, many new and interesting ideas and viewpoints emerged. For example, by comparing and contrasting certain results, I was able to formulate findings that had not occurred to me previously. I discovered that it is very possible that college students place importance on the Internet to their everyday life by their involvement in social networking. Furthermore, a college student’s year in school correlates to how distracted they get while attempting to do schoolwork online. In addition, the available ways in which a college student is able to connect to the Internet impacts how much time they spend on the Internet per day. And finally, 70% of college students have a primary time of day in which they go online, and primary activities in which they go online to do. Methods and Samples: I obtained all the information that follows in a research group consisting of four other members than myself. We all separately developed 20 questions we felt were important and relevant to help us better understand college student’s Internet use. We then looked and our surveys and compiled a single survey consisting of 23 questions we felt would best analyze our
research problem. We then divided the distribution of the survey up, each individual in charge of obtaining 20 results, so we could have at least 100 results. The targeted audience we decided on was currently enrolled college students at La Salle University. We targeted anyone who was willing to do the survey, and did not select anyone based on certain traits. We ended up overshooting our target number of responses, and got 165 people to take the survey, 58 males and 107 females. We had predominately seniors (42%) take the survey, as we are upper classmen ourselves and predominantly know people fitting this criterion. Survey Data Analysis: In our survey we started with basic questions, such as year in school, gender, and what school their major falls under. We then moved on to ask them how much time they spent online during a weekday and a weekend day. These results did not vary greatly from weekday and weekend day, and results were typically the same, with the most common answer being 2-3 hours. We then discovered that the time people go online typically depends on the day for 70% of our volunteers. Also, 87% of our participants believe that Internet is important to their everyday life and 99% of our respondents belong to a social networking site, with the most common being Facebook. We then asked them what they go online to do, which I found extremely interesting and which I believe gives us a huge insight into how college students use the Internet.
Furthermore, 96% of people use Google as their primary search engine. The most common device they used to access the Internet is laptops, with 93%, and people connect to the Internet mostly from their home. Respondents were most commonly introduced to the Internet between the ages of 10-15, and 90% of them believe their Internet use has increased while in college. The year they felt they used the Internet the most was in their freshman year, with them believe their Internet usage has changed since freshman year. Of the respondents, 76% believe that they find themselves distracted while attempting to do schoolwork online, and 75% believe that schoolwork takes longer than planned due to distractions on the Internet. Interestingly, 63% of the students have 2-4 tabs open while on the Internet. In regards to advertising, 93% rarely or never click on advertising, and it is pretty much tied in the view of online advertising being successful or unsuccessful, with the most common answer being unsure. Key Findings:
Using the cross tab technique, I was able to find some correlations in the data that are worth analyzing. Importance of Internet vs. Social Networking: I started off with first cross tabbing the question “internet is important to my everyday life” with “I belong to a social networking site”, which provided me with some noteworthy statistics. In the respondents, 87% belong to a social networking site and believed that the Internet is important to their everyday life, with only 3% who belong to a social networking site disagreeing with the importance. Also, 87% of people who had a Facebook account believe in the importance of the Internet to them, with, once again, 3% disagreeing. Following Facebook as the most popular social networking site, 75% of MySpace users regarded the Internet as important to them daily.
Getting Distracted vs. Year in School: The next noteworthy finding would be comparing the question “I find myself distracted while attempting to do schoolwork online” with the respondent’s current year in school. The first interesting result is the percentages of each grade that agreed with the concept of being distracted. In everyone who answered, 42% freshman, 81% sophomores, 83% juniors, 80% seniors, and 72% super seniors agreed that they found themselves distracted. Another interesting fact in regards to distraction would be that the individuals who found themselves the most distracted by the Internet spent 10 or more hours on the Internet per weekday, with 23.5%. The people who strongly disagreed with the statement also spent the lease time online, averaging 0-2 hours online on a weekday.
Ways One Accesses the Internet vs. Time Spent Online: I then thought it would be interesting to see how the devices a student use changes the time students spend online. I focused on the people who picked 10 or more hours spent online per weekday as I believed them
to be the most intriguing and I wanted to know how they could spend that much time online. Since this was a “click all that apply” response, there is no way to be certain that they clicked on numerous answers for devices used, or how many choices were clicked, but I believe this correlation is still interesting regardless. Statistically, 70% of those who spent 10 or more hours online accessed the Internet via desktops, 91% of these individuals connected to the Internet via laptops, 54% connected through the use of mobile devices, 8% through the use of game counsels, and 4% in other ways not mentioned.
Time of Day vs. What You Go Online to Do: For my final key finding, I thought it would be intriguing to see if there was any correlation between what time one goes on the internet with what they go online to do. Let’s omit the result “depends on the day” from the question asking “what time you go on the internet”, as that cannot tell us as much as the specific times of the day. For the question of “what do you go online to do” I chose the top 5 answers, with email coming first with 153 responses, music and research coming in second with 138
responses each, YouTube third with 137 responses, and the school’s website fourth with 127 responses. In the morning, research was the most common result, followed by email, music, and research tying for second. In the afternoon, music and email tied for the most common, with research coming second. In the evening, email was first, followed by research and the school’s website. At night, email was the most common result again, followed by a tie between research and music. And finally, during activity at late night there was a three-way tie among email, music, and research.
Conclusion As seen above, our survey provided some interesting results that are exceptionally remarkable. From my first finding I mentioned, I can conclude that social networking and being able to stay in constant touch with anyone of your liking impacts how college students view the internet, and aids in it’s importance to the individual. From my second finding I can conclude that Internet usage does change from freshman year, and where freshman did not find themselves distracted, all the other grades rested in around the same percentages for finding themselves distracted. However, when asked the question of which year the students thought
they used the Internet the most, the most common answer was freshman year. From my third finding I can conclude that when college students have numerous ways to be able to connect to the Internet, they will spend significantly more time online. And finally, from my last finding I can conclude that many college students, 70%, have certain times of the days they primarily go online, and although their top activity changes, their main destinations do not change significantly, with research, music, and email being the top choices. From our results I can also determine that the average time spent online for a college student is between 2-5 hours. This goes against my findings I had previously, that stated that according to a survey conducted by Imedia, 43% of students that completed their survey spend 10 hours or more a week on the internet (Lowe 1). With the average student spending at least 2 hours online a day, the average La Salle University college student (assuming that this is a correct representation of the student body) spends 14-35 hours a week online. My previous research also stated that Facebook was a main objective for college students and the Internet. “It accounts for 20% of web requests. 85% of undergrads are signed up to it, as well as a third of post grads, and they seem to use it regularly�(Poulter 1). However, we found in our research that these numbers were higher, as 99% of the participants had a Facebook account. A final note about my previous research of the problem to the analysis of our own results would be what year college students were introduced to the Internet. Jones said that today’s college student has been using the Internet for years, 20% of which began using it between the ages of 5 and 8. We found that 60% of our participants said they were introduced between the ages of 10-15, and 35% were introduced between ages 5-10. Discussion When performing a survey, it is difficult for it to be perfect, and I can say that we indeed did not produce a perfect survey. First off, we did not have a good representative sample of the
student body. Our results were based on volunteers, many of which were our kind friends who we asked to take the survey. Since they knew us, this may have altered their responses, truthfulness, or other numerous factors. Also, we had a lot more seniors than any other year, and in order for the survey to be fully legitimate, we would have had to have an equal representation from each year. This also goes for the males verses the females, in which females is higher represented. There is also no way to prove or disprove the honesty of the participants, and for all we know, people’s grandparents could have been the one to take the survey. One question we put on the survey was also flawed and could not be used in the analysis of our data. We asked the question of what year the college student thought they used the Internet most, listing freshman year, sophomore year, junior year, senior year, and super senior year. However, when developing this question we did not take into account that freshman would be taking the survey, and, with this being their first year and all they know, they would have to put freshman year. This altered our desired results in this question, and we should have put more answers as options, such as “still a freshman” and should have even added “unsure”. We, additionally, had a difficult time in the production on aspects of the survey itself. Although we felt it was important to know the student’s major, we either would have had to make a code book, or list every single major at La Salle in the question to make it correct. We then decided that this would have been more trouble than it’s worth, and gave into simplifying majors into three separate parts, asking the recipients to tell us what school their major falls under. When creating the survey, we also did not know what results we would get and if they would be interesting in regards to our research problem. For this reason, we choose to ask many question, to not lead anyone into what we thought we were looking for, and to make it easier for us once we got the results to find intriguing correlations and new ideas/viewpoints we had not thought of previously.
Works Cited Harrington, Alexa. "College Internet Use." Higher Educated 16 Oct. 2009: 1-2. Print. Jones, Steve. "The Internet Goes to College." USDLA Journal 16.10 (2002): 1-2. USDLA Journal. Ed at a Distance, Oct. 2002. Web. 01 Nov. 2009. <http://www.usdla.org/html/journal/OCT02_Issue/article03.html>. Korgen, Kathleen, Patricia Odell, and Phyllis Schumacher. "Internet Use Amoung College Students: Are there Differences in Races/Ethinicities?" Electronic Journal of Sociology: 1-3. Electronic Journal of Sociology. CAAP, 2007. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. Liebert, Mary A. "Internet Use Amoung Male and Female College Students." CyberPsychology & Behavior. 05 July 2005. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089%2F10949310050191836>. Lowe, Veronica. "Study: College Students' Internet Use." IMedia. 20 July 2006. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://www.imediaconnection.com/news/10466.asp>. Nagel, David. "College Students Use Internet for Research." Campus Technology. 1105 Media, 15 Aug. 2007. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://campustechnology.com/articles/2007/08/research-college-studentsuse-internet-for-education--huh.aspx>. Poulter, Martin. "What do Students Use the Internet For?" The Ancient Greeks. 30 Mar. 2007. Web. 3 Nov. 2009. <http://ancientgeeks.com/2007/03/30/what-dostudents-use-the-internet-for/>.
1. internet Use Among Undergraduate College Students Thank you for taking this survey. This is for Dr. Celano's Media Research Class. We will attempt to collect information about the internet usage of college students at La Salle University. Your answers will remain anonymous, so please answer honestly. If you have any questions please contact Dr. Cleano via email at celano@lasalle.edu Thanks again.
1. I am taking this survey for: j k l m n
Amie Brittle
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Rob Fierro
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Lisa Donohue
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Matt Pini
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Karla Castillo
2. What year in school are you? j k l m n
Freshman
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Sophomore
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Junior
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Senior
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Super Senior
3. What is your gender? j k l m n
Male
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Female
4. In what school does your major fall under? j k l m n
School of Arts and Sciences
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School of Business
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School of Nursing and Health Sciences
5. On average, how much time do you spend on the internet per week day? j k l m n
0-1 hrs
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1-2 hrs
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2-3 hrs
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3-4 hrs
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4-5 hrs
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5-6 hrs
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6-7 hrs
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7-8 hrs
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8-9 hrs
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9-10 hrs
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10+ hrs
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Don't go on during weekdays
6. On average, how much time do you spend on the computer per weekend day? j k l m n
0-1 hrs
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1-2 hrs
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2-3 hrs
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3-4 hrs
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4-5 hrs
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5-6 hrs
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6-7 hrs
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7-8 hrs
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8-9 hrs
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9-10 hrs
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10+ hrs
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Don't go on during weekends
7. At what time of day are you on the internet the most? j k l m n
Morning
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Afternoon
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Evening
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Night
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Late Night
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Depends on the Day
8. Internet is important to my everyday life. j k l m n
Strongly Agree
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Agree
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Neutral
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Disagree
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Strongly Disagree
9. Do you belong to a social networking site? j k l m n
Yes
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No
10. Please check all the social networking sites you use(if you do not have a social networking site please skip ahead). c d e f g
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Myspace
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Bebo
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Deviant Art
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Flixster
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Friendster
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Geni.com
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Skype
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Tagged.com
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Livejournal
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Classmates
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Imeem
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11. What do you go online to do? Check all that apply. c d e f g
Shop
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Music
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Sports
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Gaming
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YouTube
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News
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Research
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Banking
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Blogs
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Forms
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Movies
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TV
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Dating
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Networking
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School's Website
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Other
12. Which 'search' engines do you use? Check all that apply c d e f g
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Yahoo
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Ask.com
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Dog Pile
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Webcrawler
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AltaVisa
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Lycos
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Bing
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AOL Search
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Search.com
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Excite
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Other
13. In what ways do you access the internet? Check all that apply. c d e f g
Other
c d e f g
Mobile Devices
c d e f g
Laptop
c d e f g
Desktop
c d e f g
Game Counsels
14. Where have you connected to the internet? Check all that apply. c d e f g
Library
c d e f g
At Work
c d e f g
At Home
c d e f g
At School
c d e f g
Cyber Cafe
c d e f g
At a friend's house
c d e f g
Wireless Public location
c d e f g
Mobile Device
c d e f g
Other
15. At what age where you first introduced to the internet? j k l m n
0-5 years old
j k l m n
5-10 years old
j k l m n
10-15 years old
j k l m n
15-20 years old
j k l m n
20-25 years old
16. Has your internet use increased while in college? j k l m n
Yes
j k l m n
No
17. What year in college do you feel you have used the internet the most? j k l m n
Freshman
j k l m n
Sophmore
j k l m n
Junior
j k l m n
Senior
j k l m n
Super Senior
18. Has your internet use changed since Freshman year? j k l m n
Yes
j k l m n
No
j k l m n
Unsure
j k l m n
Still a Freshman
19. You find yourself distracted when attempting to do HW/Research online. j k l m n
Strongly Agree
j k l m n
Agree
j k l m n
Neutral
j k l m n
Disagree
j k l m n
Strongly Disagree
20. Homework assignments take longer than expected due to distractions on the internet. j k l m n
Strongly Agree
j k l m n
Agree
j k l m n
Neutral
j k l m n
Disagree
j k l m n
Strongly Disagree
21. How many tabs do you have open while visiting the internet? j k l m n
1-2
j k l m n
2-3
j k l m n
3-4
j k l m n
4-5
j k l m n
5+
j k l m n
Unsure
22. Do you ever click on advertisements while using the internet? j k l m n
Always
j k l m n
A lot of times
j k l m n
Neutral
j k l m n
Rarely
j k l m n
Never
23. Online advertising is successful. j k l m n
Strongly Agree
j k l m n
Agree
j k l m n
Unsure
j k l m n
Disagree
j k l m n
Strongly Disagree