There are two purposes for employees to use working computers and internet: for work-related activities and nonwork-related activities. As to work-related activities, they are purchasing, customer services, marketing, recruitment, sales, management, work-related communication and information-acquiring. Otherwise, nonwork-related activities comprise of social/communicative purposes (using internet to communicate with friends and co-workers inside and outside companies) and Entertainment/informational purposes (acquiring information about weather, entertainment, news etc.). Through literature research, there are evidences suggesting that different purposes of internet usage has a significant effect on job playfulness, while performance will increase, with accompanying job playfulness enhanced. The relationship between purposes of internet usage and performance will be discussed in the study. Furthermore, there are other antecedent factors affecting purposes of internet usage, such as job stress, job characteristics and attitudes towards job and monitoring. This is one of the discussions on how these antecedent factors influencing purposes of internet usage positively or negatively. The survey data from 233 employees is analyzed by CFA abd SEM. Following are the results: 1. There is a positive relationship between the purposes of internet usage and job playfulness, and job playfulness serves as the mediator to affect the performance. 2. Job stress, job characteristics, attitudes towards job and monitoring have significant effect on the purposes of internet usage. 3. Age, Seniority and Marriage will reduce the usage of social/communicative and entertainment/informational purposes.The demography of respondents¡¥ profiles makes difference on purposes of internet usage, job stress, job characteristics and attitudes towards job and monitoring.

The fast rise of Internet broadens students¡¦ ways of learning and their views; however, there is possibility that improper Internet use will result in problems of Internet addiction. Reviewing the literature about Internet addiction, we can find that many studies were carried quantitatively by using a questionnaire survey to examine and explain the relationships among related variables and their intensity and then apply regression analysis and characteristic equation to find out the forecast of Internet addiction. These studies truly not only helped the academia understand the factors involved in Internet addiction but also offered reference materials for preventing and improving the problems. Nevertheless, there were some limits in these quantitative studies. For example, it is hard to understand the causal relationship among the factors. Also, one-way linear inference ignored the feedback behaviors from Internet addiction toward related factors and fell into one-way think mode. Internet addiction is indeed a mental problem and involves complicated and obscure factors, which usually could be cause and effect of each other. This study aimed to compensate for the loss of dynamic complexity in all kinds of Internet addiction modes in the literature by reviewing important literature, inducing and generalizing dangerous factors and effects, employing system dynamics to construct the dynamic mode of Internet addiction, and applying the picture of causal feedback and the mode of math to see through the structure of movement behind and the interaction among the factors. This study showed five main findings. First, hiding oneself in the Internet world, which could not reduce pressure, only helped obtain a temporary sense of achievement but resulted in severe outcomes, such as the problem of time management and a vicious circle of interpersonal relationship and schoolwork pressure produced by Internet addiction. Second, ¡§withdrawal symptoms¡¨ and ¡§a sense of achievement obtained on the Internet¡¨ were leading indicators for Internet addiction. Third, limiting the amount of time of surfing on the Internet and slackening withdrawal symptoms were temporary solutions to the problem at a later period. Moreover, there was a certain correlation among the critical points of value of withdrawal symptoms, limiting the amount of time of surfing on the Internet, and improving the timing. Fourth, only facing the problem was the ultimate solution to Internet addiction. Finally, the problem of Internet addiction was actually a transformed version of archetype brought up in the book ¡§The Fifth Discipline.¡¨

This research examines the time used by teenagers, aged 16 to 19 years, the types of activities teenagers do, and the impact of internet usage on their non-fixed activities during weekdays. The data employed for this research is the 2009 National Household Travel Survey (NHTS 2009). For this study, socio-demographic factors (such as age, gender, race, work status, immigrant status, number of individuals in the household, number of children in the household, number of workers in the household, household income, and others), non-fixed activities (at home, shopping, personal business, physical, recreational and social, meals, religious, and others), time spent on non-fixed activities, and internet use among teenagers were taken into consideration. The methodology in this research uses an ordered response model to analyze internet usage, and a Multiple Discrete Continuous Extreme Value model (MDCEV) to analyze the activity participation. The results show that individual and household demographic characteristics have an impact on internet usage, as well as, internet usage is found to have a significant impact on the activity participation behavior of teenagers. / text

M.A. / The goal of the present study was to investigate the relationship between personality traits, attitudes towards the Internet, and Internet use. This study was regarded as important because the Internet is increasingly becoming an important part of everyday life, and is changing society as we know it. 224 third year psychology students participated in the study. The existing literature indicated that the personality traits of Extraversion and Openness to Experience were likely to influence Internet use. Attitudes could also be expected to influence volitional behaviour, such as voluntary Internet use. Other research has also found exposure to be positively related to attitudes. A self-constructed questionnaire collected information relating to computer and Internet use, as well as attitudes towards the Internet. A short personality measure, namely the Saucier (1994) 40-ltem Mini-marker set, was used to measure the personality traits of participants. Examination of the results obtained through correlational and multiple regression techniques supported the existing theory. The personality traits of Extraversion and Openness to Experience were found to predict Internet use in certain situations, with Openness emerging as particularly important in understanding computer and Internet use. Attitudes formed by exposure to the Internet, as measured by the self-constructed Internet exposure scale, was found to correlate positively with time spent on the Internet. The study support previous studies which found that the personality traits of Extraversion and Openness influence media use, and suggest that this influence is also present in relation to Internet use. It also supported the theory that a positive relationship exists between attitudes towards the Internet, specifically attitudes formed by exposure, and frequency of Internet use.

In recent years, the Internet has made many changes to different aspects of individuals’ professional and personal lives. It is used in different professions for various reasons such as improving communication, increasing efficiency and access to more resources and opportunities. Furthermore, improved conditions at work can help increase employee’s job satisfaction and the positive feeling toward their job. The aim of this study is to examine the effect of Internet use on Job satisfaction for teachers and the potential moderating effects of gender and age on this relationship. To conduct this study, a sample including 71 teachers was used and a survey was used to collect the information from the teachers. Two regression analyses were carried out and three hypotheses were tested. The results from these analyses did not support the idea of an effect of Internet use on teachers’ job satisfaction or moderating effects of age and gender on the relationship. However, there was some evidence that teachers in the sample viewed the Internet as positive for their job. It should be mentioned that the conclusions are limited by methodological problems such as questionnaire design and sampling.

The major purpose of this study was to determine what associations exist between student Internet usage in secondary science classrooms and the way students perceive their classroom environment. A second purpose was to study how the Internet was used in each classroom involved and to see what effects these various approaches had on classroom environments. The study included a sample of 431 students in five Hawaii Catholic high schools and data were collected using site observations, student-teacher interviews, and a questionnaire using the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey, a student attitude towards science scale, and Internet usage questions. Site observations were carried out periodically over an academic year, with a high degree of communication between the sample teachers and the author. / Some three dozen students representing all five high schools were interviewed in depth in an attempt to qualitatively clarify the quantitative findings of the total sample. The results of the study indicate that there is an association between greater student Internet usage and a positive perception of classroom environment. Additionally, the students in this sample express an almost total acceptance of the Internet as an educational resource. Student interview data suggest that this new technology has moved past the innovative stage and into the mainstream of daily educational routine. It seems that student attitudes, as well as individual feelings of self-control and personal relevance seem to be enhanced by the use of the Internet, allowing students to construct unique meaning on a personal level. Finally, there is a high association between student Internet usage and teacher Internet usage, that is, the attitude and behaviour of individual teachers concerning their Internet usage has an influence on the extent to which their students use the Internet for academic purposes.

<p>Introduction</p><p>This paper focuses on the Internet and more specifically on how non-profit organizations can use the Internet to enhance their online presence. Our choice of research object is Automation Region (AR), a non-profit cluster organization, whose purpose is to strengthen and make the cluster of companies within industrial automation in Mälardalen visible. This cluster consists of business-to-business companies in the automation industry and AR was formed to increase the productivity, growth and profitability of these companies. The organization has two goals set up, which include: (1) increased exposure for the automation industry as well as the region wherein AR operates and (2) attracting the best competence as well as getting youths and children interested in automation. AR currently has a website (www.automationregion.com) and the overall purpose for it is to support AR's goals. However, we have a difficulty seeing how this website, as it looks and functions today, is to achieve the goals and objectives of the cluster organization and we also find it difficult to see how AR should do in order to expose its website and its brand to its target audience. The two research questions then becomes: How is Automation Region's website being used today? How can Automation Region utilize the Internet to achieve its goals?</p><p>Purpose</p><p>The purpose of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how cluster organizations like Automation Region may use the Internet to achieve its goals, and by doing this also be able to give recommendations on how Automation Region can benefit from the use of the Internet as their primary channel for goal achievement.</p><p>Method - An Action Research based study</p><p>This paper is based on an action research approach, which contains a real world problem, a framework of ideas, and a set of methodologies. The different means of collecting data used in this paper can be categorized in four separate categories: interviews, internet analysis tool, benchmarking, and other empirical data collected.</p><p>Framework of ideas</p><p>Our framework of ideas consists of an introduction to the term clusters, which then explains the different actors on the cluster stage. Then the benefits of clusters are discussed, leading to a further discussion on how non-profit cluster organizations can utilize the possible benefits of a cluster. This leads to a presentation of different ways to improve an organizations online presence.</p><p>Analysis</p><p>The analysis is divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the results of the website analysis, where different reports from the web analysis program are analyzed. This will show how the website currently is being used and should lead to conclusions on how this usage can be improved. The second part focuses on the available Internet tools and how AR can utilize these to reach their explicit goals for the cluster organization.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>The so called internal visitors are plentiful on AR's website site and we can conclude that the site is being used in an Intranet like way. Another conclusion is that AR should be able to increase the probability of achieving their goals by further enhancing the use of the Internet tools they currently have (website and e-mail), and also by expanding their online presence with the use of several other potential Internet tools.</p>

The current study investigated how the constructs of social anxiety, relationship support, self-esteem, and personality traits may be related to overall Internet use, and using the Internet for communication, information seeking, entertainment and online gaming. Participants were 258 undergraduate college students (142 males, 116 females) at a Midwestern University, who identified as predominantly European-American (48.1%) or African-American (37.6%). Students completed self-report questionnaires in online format. Results were generally contrary to the study's hypotheses. This investigation found a positive relationship between the personality trait of Openness and student's overall time using the Internet (p < .01), as well as time spent engaging in online gaming (p < .05) and online information seeking (p < .01). Additionally, demographic variables were related to Internet usage such that a positive relationship was found between student's identification as an African-American and overall time using the Internet (p < .01), time spent communicating online (p < .01), and time spent utilizing online entertainment (p < .01). A positive relationship was also found between gender and time spent online gaming (p < .01), indicating that males engaged in online gaming at higher rates than females. This study also examined motivations for Internet usage and results indicated that frequently endorsed motivations were communicating with others, seeking entertainment, looking for information online, and coping with problems. Prior research has supported potential relationships between social anxiety, relationship support, self-esteem, and particular personality traits and Internet usage; however, the current study failed to find many of these relationships. The failure to find hypothesized relationships between numerous psychological variables and Internet usage could be related to numerous factors, such as changes in Internet usage over time, measurement concerns regarding instruments used in the current study, or differences in sample composition relative to previous research investigating these relationships.

An Exploratory Study on the Interrelationship of Internet Addiction, Internet Usage Motivation, Internet Usage Behavior and User Characteristics for Taiwan High School Students. Chieh-Ju Tung Abstract The purpose of this study was to examine the interrelationship among motivation and gratification level, activities, personality and Internet addiction for Taiwan¡¦s high school students based on the Uses and Gratifications Theory. The characteristics of those identified as addicted are investigated along with the factors of demographic data, motivation and gratification, web attitude and personality. Moreover, structural equation modeling was used to verify the Theory. The study was conducted using purposive sampling at two major municipals in Taiwan. Questionnaires including Pathological Internet Use Scale for Taiwan high school student, Diagnoistic Questionnaires, Internet usage Motivation and Gratification Scale, Interpersonal Relationship Scale, Self-Esteem Scale, Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, Internet Usage Behavior Questionnaire, Perceptions of the Internet Influences and Demographic Data. Of the 1708 qualified samples, 236 were classified as Internet addicted. Major findings of the study are: 1. Entertainment is the major factor for high school students to use Internet, information searching stands as second. Surfing with motivation of social and entertainment has positive correlation with Internet addiction. Those classified as addicted have higher motivation on social and entertainment and have higher satisfaction thereafter. 2. Males who own computer, with grades in lower two-thirds of the class, with more than 4 years Internet usage experience, always using cyber-caf&#x00E9; or surfing during weekday have higher tendency to become addicted. 3. System and location of school, the grade attended or whether access Internet at home have no relationship with addiction. 4. The average weekly hours on Internet is positive correlated with Internet addiction. 5. Students with personality of dependence, shyness, depression or lower self-esteem have higher tendency to become addicted. 6. The probability of males to become addicted is 2.6 times that of females. Vocational high school students have higher tendency to become addicted than non-vocational high school students. 7. The average weekly hours on Internet for those addicted is 21.2 hours, it¡¦s 1.75 times that of normal ones. 8. Those identified as addicted always surf in cyber-caf&#x00E9; and favor on-line games, chat room and sex-related activities. 9. Those identified as addicted have lower self-esteem and higher depression. 10. Internet addiction has significant canonical correlation with motivation on social/entertainment and hours on Internet. 11. Internet addiction has significant canonical correlation with shyness, depression emotion, poor interpersonal relationship, negative self-concept and lower self-esteem. 12. The theoretical model constructed in this study could explain the relationship among main variables by Amos. 13. ¡§Internet usage motivation¡¨ has greatest direct effect on addiction. It has greatest total effect when combines with the factor of ¡§Average weekly hours on Internet ¡¨. 14. The predictability for Internet addiction is 62% when six variables were used (Motivation on social, Motivation on entertainment, Average weekly hours on Internet, Interpersonal relationship, Depression and Self-esteem). Finally, suggestions on counseling addicted students are made for government and high school authorities, counselors and parents. Issues for futher study are also discussed.

<p>Abstract</p><p>Title: See each other on the Internet or on a café? A survey about social consequences of Internet usage. (Umgås på Internet eller på ett café? – en studie om Internetanvändningens sociala konsekvenser.)</p><p>Number of pages: 34 (including enclosures).</p><p>Author: Carolin Johansson.</p><p>Tutor: Else Nygren.</p><p>Course: Media and Communication Studies C.</p><p>Period: Fall 2007.</p><p>University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University.</p><p>Purpose/Aim: The purpose is to get increased knowledge about the social consequences that may come up when young people at the age of 16-20 are using the Internet.</p><p>Material/Method: The material consists of a questionnaire that I made with questions about Internet usage that 84 young people from five classes (from three different upper secondary schools) answered.</p><p>Main results: To have access to a computer and Internet and the fact that broadband is more inexpensive now than before leads to an increased usage of the Internet. I found out that chatting, music/movies, searching for information and using the Internet for entertainment is what most of the participants spent the most time on while using the Internet. I also found out that an increased usage of the Internet could lead to decreased time together with friends/family.</p><p>Keywords: Internet usage, social consequences, Instant Messaging, Community, online communication.</p>