Extant literature has documented well that people seek health information via the internet as patients and consumers. Much less, however, is known about interaction and creation behaviors in the development of new online health information and knowledge. More specifically, generalizable sociodemographic data on who engages in this online health behavior via social media is lacking in the sociological literature. The term “social e-health” is introduced to emphasize the difference between seeking behaviors and interaction and creation behaviors. A 2010 dataset of a large nationally representative and randomly sampled telephone survey made freely available from the Pew Research Center is used to examine social e-health behavior according to respondents’ sociodemographics. The dependent variable of social e-health behavior is measured by 13 survey questions from the survey. Gender, race, ethnicity, age, education, and income are used as independent variables. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the odds of engagement in social e-health behavior based on the sociodemographic predictors. The social determinants of health and digital divide frameworks are used to help explain why socioeconomic variances exist in social e-health behavior. The findings of the current study suggest that predictable sociodemographic patterns along the dimensions of gender, race, age, education, and income exist for those who report engaging in social e-health behavior. This study is important because it underscores the fact that engagement in social e-health behavior is differentially distributed in the general U.S. population according to patterned sociodemographics.

There is a need to create efficiency through digital technology within the elder care, as the elderly population of society is increasing. Existing IT-systems are considered incompatible with healthcare work, despite of Swedish investments in digital development in healthcare. Practices and the use of digital artefacts within an elder care home was therefore studied. Through an ethnographic qualitative method (consisting of field studies, video ethnography and interviews), the empirically driven study identified the healthcare workers existing interactions with- and use of digital technology, as well as the consequences that the use entailed. The study showed that the healthcare workers used the workplace’s existing digital technology as well as personal digital artefacts to solve daily tasks. Furthermore, the results showed that the healthcare workers interactions with personal digital artefacts mediated new work situations, and the healthcare workers desire for new digital work tools. / Inom äldreomsorgen finns ett behov av digital teknik som kan effektivisera omsorgsarbetet, eftersom den äldre befolkningen i samhället ökar. Trots Sveriges satsningar på digital utveckling inom vård- och omsorg, har det visat sig att personal inte anser att befintliga IT-system är kompatibla med vård- och omsorgsarbetet. Därför studerades praktiker och användning av digitala artefakter på ett vård- och omsorgsboende. Genom etnografisk kvalitativ metod (i form av fältstudier, videoetnografi och intervjuer) identifierade den empiriskt drivna studien personalens befintliga interaktioner med- och användning av digital teknik, samt de konsekvenser användningen medförde. Resultatet visade även att personalen använde arbetsplatsens befintliga digitala teknik, samt personliga digitala artefakter för att lösa dagliga arbetsuppgifter. Vidare visade studien att personalens interaktioner med personliga digitala hjälpmedel medierade nya situationer i arbetet och att personalen önskade nya digitala arbetsverktyg.

This thesis presents my original contribution to knowledge, a combination of critical media and performance theories to analyse the production and augmentation of postdigital experiential spaces in Punchdrunk Theatre Company. Distributed agency is key to Punchdrunk's work, with makers within the company and audiences both being active participants in meaning-making, across complex and detailed interfaces. In order to investigate the making cultures on ‘both sides' of the interface, I undertook a two-year participant study as a researching designer within the company during the build of the productions The House Where Winter Lives and The Drowned Man in 2011-2014, gathering field data in the form of extensive interviews with members of the company and audience participants, supported by diary notations and photographs. I studied the processes and methods that extend, distribute and regulate agency to both audiences and makers within the company, and identified devices and features of the interaction design of the company that produce the immanent subject-event relationships that support immersion in their work. A core aspect of this research concerns the relationship between immersion and the sublime, and how subject-event relationships (immanent vs. transcendent) contribute to engendering sublime interactive experiences. I have analysed the consequences of this for the modelling of participation in interaction design, and how it influences conditions of possibility within interactive systems across physical, digital and blended media. The conclusion of this research includes the definition of a postdigital sublime, and proposes a delinquent system aesthetic that integrates proxies for gravity through articulation of the ‘shadow side' of interaction design.

Today, visitors use social media before, during and after travels to share, create and discuss content with others. This means that the visitor industry needs to profile themselves on social media to communicate their services toward their visitors. Parallel to this development, a creative tourist class has been emerging. This group demands new experiences that differs from a previous more conventional tourism, which is spreading among the public and is marketed more often on social media. This study analyze how the visitor industry experience the digital visitor and the new creative tourist class in Stockholm Archipelago. The result of the study shows that social media is a tool, which allows the people working in the visitor industry to multitask because they can bring it anywhere. Due to the digital visitors high interactivity online, the visitor industry are being challenged on both resources and knowledge. It is also shows that it makes it possible for smaller businesses to market themselves globally and easily reach their target group in a profitable way.

The rise of the digital technology, social networking or interactivity have an extensive impact on what is happening in virtual world. Users of Internet are more and more often introduced to the new available on-line tools. Some of them have adapted those new trends with no problems and they have been taking an advantage of them with an ease, whereas others have had problems with converting themselves into the new digital era. Alternatively, others are not fascinated by what Internet offers or they simply cannot afford it due to many circumstances. However, with no doubts, we can say that the Internet and the digital revolution brought about many issues to discuss or to have a research about. To some extent, new trends, especially the expansion of the Internet, are affecting all traditional media and this, in my opinion, might result in the new phenomena like potential division of society into Digital Natives and Digital Immigrants proposed by Prensky (2001a).The project focused on investigating motives for choosing sport websites by both groups with special consideration of interactivity factor. The motives have been checked via in-depth interviews using the sample of ten interviewees both private and professional users of Polish sport informative websites. I wanted to check whether my results either duplicate what Prensky described in his articles or they confirm contradictive opinion given by VanSlyke.Additionally, I have compared those most popular motives with sample of five most often visited Polish sport informative websites, according to Alexa rank (2012). The level of interactivity on those websites was assessed by an appearance of examples of new new media like blogs, podcasts, number of posts on Facebook fan pages, created account on Twitter or channel on YouTube (Levinson, 2010). Also possibility of commenting was taken into consideration. Having checked those variables via cyber ethnography method (secondary method) I was able to identify which of the sampled websites could be considered as most interactive one.Despite persisting limitations, the method has brought reliable and valid data, according to which I have given my conclusions by answering research questions stated at the beginning of this project.

On average, African Americans receive lower wages in the workplace due to lack of advanced technical skills. The reason for technical deficiency among some African Americans is often lack of exposure to IT resources at an early age. The purpose of this ethnographic study was to identify and explore the factors that contribute to lack of IT resources available to some African Americans to cultivate IT skills. Information literacy theory formed the conceptual framework, which focused on information resources that African American and Caucasians use in the workforce for problem solving and retrieving information. Data were collected by conducting face-to-face and phone interviews using open-ended questions with 20 randomly selected African Americans employed in South Carolina, North Carolina, Florida, and Maryland. Data saturation was reached after interviewing the 20 participants. Data were analyzed for emergent themes, revealing that (a) more computer use yielded higher academic achievement, (b) users with higher income had more access to IT resources, and (c) users who had more technical knowledge received higher wages. The findings of the study may contribute to positive social change by exposing members of the African American community as well as other communities to the importance of advanced computer skills, which are needed to succeed in careers and to compete effectively in the workplace.

Esta tese visa analisar de que maneira as condições de acesso à Internet (autonomia de uso) e fatores sociodemográficos (idade, gênero, classe social e área geográfica) influenciam o desenvolvimento de habilidades digitais e como essas, por sua vez, afetam o aproveitamento de oportunidades online. A partir da literatura do campo de exclusão digital e da lente teórica do modelo de campos correspondentes desenvolveu-se um modelo de pesquisa que norteou as análises empreendidas nesta investigação. Para tanto, foi adotada uma estratégia metodológica quantitativa tendo como base os microdados das edições de 2014 e 2016 da pesquisa TIC Domicílios coordenada pelo Centro Regional de Estudos para o Desenvolvimento da Sociedade da Informação (Cetic.br). A investigação empreendida nesta tese está contemplada em três artigos inter-relacionadas para os quais aplicou-se as seguintes técnicas estatísticas multivariadas para o tratamento e análise de dados: análise de conglomerados, análise fatorial para dados binários, regressão logística binária e regressão linear múltipla. Os resultados desta investigação evidenciam que a simples disponibilização do acesso à Internet (foco de ações e políticas que promovem a inclusão digital) não é suficiente para o aproveitamento de oportunidades online, em virtude das desigualdades digitais existentes em termos de autonomia de uso e nos níveis de habilidades digitais. Em síntese, os achados da pesquisa apontam que indivíduos de maior status socioeconômico (maior classe social, escolaridade e renda) tendem a se conectar à Internet por meio de dispositivos computacionais e móveis (multiplataforma) e em uma maior variedade de locais de acesso, consequentemente, alcançando maior nível de autonomia de uso, o qual tende a influenciar positivamente nos diferentes níveis de habilidades digitais, contribuindo para melhor usufruir as oportunidades online de domínio econômico, social e pessoal. Em contrapartida, usuários de menor status socioeconômico (classe DE) tendem a apresentar menor nível de autonomia de uso (conectando-se exclusivamente pelo celular), potencialmente implicando em menores níveis de competência digital, ocasionando em um menor aproveitamento de oportunidades online, principalmente no domínio econômico. Em linhas gerais, esses achados demonstram que as desigualdades sociais previamente existentes no mundo social (offline) tendem a ser mantidas e amplificadas no universo digital. Além de permitir uma análise em profundidade do fenômeno da exclusão digital no Brasil, tais achados podem contribuir para avaliação e desenvolvimento de políticas públicas de inclusão digital. / This doctorate thesis aims to analyze how the conditions of Internet access (autonomy of use) and sociodemographic factors (age, gender, social class and geographic area) influence the development of digital skills and how these in turn affect the harnessing of online opportunities. From the literature of the digital divide field and the theoretical lens of the corresponding fields model, a research model was developed to guide the analyzes undertaken in this research. Thus, a quantitative approach was adopted based on the microdata of the 2014 and 2016 editions of the ICT Households survey coordinated by the Regional Center for Studies on the Development of the Information Society (Cetic.br). The research undertaken in this doctorate thesis is contemplated in three interrelated papers for which the following multivariate statistical techniques were applied for the treatment and analysis of data: cluster analysis, binary factor analysis, binary logistic regression and multiple linear regression. The results of this research show that the simple availability of Internet access (which is the focus of policies that promote digital inclusion) is not enough to take advantage of online opportunities due to the existing digital inequalities in terms of autonomy of use and levels of digital skills. In summary, the research findings point out that individuals of higher socioeconomic status (higher social class, level of education and income) tend to access the Internet through computer and mobile devices (multiplatform) and in a greater variety of locations, consequently, reaching a greater level of autonomy of use, which tends to influence positively in the different levels of Internet skills, contributing to take advantage of online opportunities of economic, social and personal domains. On the other hand, users of lower socioeconomic status tend to have a lower level of autonomy of use (connecting exclusively via mobile), potentially implying in lower levels of digital competence, leading to less harnessing of online opportunities, especially in the economic domain. These findings demonstrate that social inequalities previously existing in the social world (offline) tend to be maintained and amplified in the digital universe. In addition to allowing an in-depth analysis of the phenomenon of digital divide in Brazil, such findings can contribute to the evaluation and development of public policies for digital inclusion.

<p>Användning av Informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) är idag ett naturligt inslag i många människors vardag. Samtidigt uppmärksammas risken med digitala klyftor av flera samhällsinstanser. I detta sammanhang nämns äldre som en av de grupper som riskerar att hamna efter, vilket i förlängningen kan leda till ett utanförskap från den demokratiska processen på grund av bristande tillgång till eller kunskap om datorer och Internet. Studiens syfte är att belysa äldres upplevelser och erfarenheter av datorer och IT och sin delaktighet i IT-samhället idag. Studien är inspirerad av etnografisk metod och har ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv där ålder kan förstås som en skapad social kategori. Empirin baseras på sex intervjuer med äldre som börjat på en datorkurs, samt av deltagande observationer som genomfördes under datorkursen. I resultatet framkommer det att ett tvång upplevs gällande att hänga med i den tekniska utvecklingen, vilket kan vara stressande och frustrerande. Samtidigt känner informanterna att det är viktigt att ”hänga med” i samhället, och de uttrycker en nyfikenhet inför tekniken. Informanterna tar sig an datorn på ett aktivt sätt. Betydelse för att lära sig är vinningar man ser i vardagen som att hålla kontakt med barnbarn, söka information och klara sig själv. Samtidigt finns en underliggande tanke om sig själv och andra, där ålder ges betydelse i fråga om att det är svårare att lära sig som gammal, eller att äldre lärare är att föredra då de har mer förståelse. I motsats till detta uttrycks att en god lärare inte är avhängigt ålder, och de personer som finns som stöd i informanternas omgivning oftast är yngre.</p> / <p>The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a natural part of many people's everyday life today. At the same time the risk of digital divides are highlighted by several community agencies in society. One of the risk groups mentioned here are elderly people, risking of falling behind and also to be left out the whole democratic process, because of lack of access to or knowledge of computers and the Internet. The aim of this study is to highlight elderly people's experiences of computers and IT and their participation and involvement in the IT society of today. The study is inspired by the ethnographic method and has a perspective of Social constructionism in which age can be understood as a social created category. The empirical material is based on six interviews with elderly people taking a computer course for beginners, as well as participant observations carried out during the computer course. It appears in the result, that a feeling of being forced is connected to keeping up with the technological development in our society, which can be stressful and frustrating. At the same time the informants feels that it is important to “keep up” with the society, and a curiosity is expressed towards technology. Informants learn computers in an active way. Meaningfulness in learning the computer is seen in everyday life as to maintain contact with grandchildren, search for information and to manage on your own. At the time, an underlying view of themselves and others exist, where the age is given importance in that it is harder to learn when you are old, or that older teachers are preferred since they have more understanding. In contrast to this it is expressed that good teachers will not depend on age, and those in the informants surroundings that supports them are usually young.</p>

Användning av Informations- och kommunikationsteknik (IKT) är idag ett naturligt inslag i många människors vardag. Samtidigt uppmärksammas risken med digitala klyftor av flera samhällsinstanser. I detta sammanhang nämns äldre som en av de grupper som riskerar att hamna efter, vilket i förlängningen kan leda till ett utanförskap från den demokratiska processen på grund av bristande tillgång till eller kunskap om datorer och Internet. Studiens syfte är att belysa äldres upplevelser och erfarenheter av datorer och IT och sin delaktighet i IT-samhället idag. Studien är inspirerad av etnografisk metod och har ett socialkonstruktionistiskt perspektiv där ålder kan förstås som en skapad social kategori. Empirin baseras på sex intervjuer med äldre som börjat på en datorkurs, samt av deltagande observationer som genomfördes under datorkursen. I resultatet framkommer det att ett tvång upplevs gällande att hänga med i den tekniska utvecklingen, vilket kan vara stressande och frustrerande. Samtidigt känner informanterna att det är viktigt att ”hänga med” i samhället, och de uttrycker en nyfikenhet inför tekniken. Informanterna tar sig an datorn på ett aktivt sätt. Betydelse för att lära sig är vinningar man ser i vardagen som att hålla kontakt med barnbarn, söka information och klara sig själv. Samtidigt finns en underliggande tanke om sig själv och andra, där ålder ges betydelse i fråga om att det är svårare att lära sig som gammal, eller att äldre lärare är att föredra då de har mer förståelse. I motsats till detta uttrycks att en god lärare inte är avhängigt ålder, och de personer som finns som stöd i informanternas omgivning oftast är yngre. / The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is a natural part of many people's everyday life today. At the same time the risk of digital divides are highlighted by several community agencies in society. One of the risk groups mentioned here are elderly people, risking of falling behind and also to be left out the whole democratic process, because of lack of access to or knowledge of computers and the Internet. The aim of this study is to highlight elderly people's experiences of computers and IT and their participation and involvement in the IT society of today. The study is inspired by the ethnographic method and has a perspective of Social constructionism in which age can be understood as a social created category. The empirical material is based on six interviews with elderly people taking a computer course for beginners, as well as participant observations carried out during the computer course. It appears in the result, that a feeling of being forced is connected to keeping up with the technological development in our society, which can be stressful and frustrating. At the same time the informants feels that it is important to “keep up” with the society, and a curiosity is expressed towards technology. Informants learn computers in an active way. Meaningfulness in learning the computer is seen in everyday life as to maintain contact with grandchildren, search for information and to manage on your own. At the time, an underlying view of themselves and others exist, where the age is given importance in that it is harder to learn when you are old, or that older teachers are preferred since they have more understanding. In contrast to this it is expressed that good teachers will not depend on age, and those in the informants surroundings that supports them are usually young.

Sedan nätets begynnelse har regleringen och styrningen av Internet präglats av en västcentrisk och teknomeritokratisk diskurs som i mångt och mycket har exkluderat en stor del av världen från att aktivt delta i informationssamhällets utformning. I denna ordning har den amerikanska staten haft en priviligierad ställning genom dess indirekta kontroll över de s.k. strategiska resurserna, dvs. IP-adresser och ‖roten‖ i domännamnsystemet, via kontraktet mellan "Department of Commerce" och organisationen "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" (ICANN). Därtill fanns det en latent konflikt mellan USA och Internetsamfundet, å ena sidan, och Förenta nationerna och dess medlemsstater, å andra sidan, såtillvida att den institutionella utformningen vilade på amerikansk civilrättslig grund och inte mellanstatliga traktat, en av grundvalarna för det geopolitiska systemet. FN anordnade således konferenserna om det globala informationssamhället, "World Summit on the Information Society" (WSIS), i Genève 2003 respektive Tunis 2005 för att lyfta frågorna om en internationellt legitim regim för Internets styrning och den ojämna fördelningen av information- och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT) mellan rika industriländer och fattiga utvecklingsländer. Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka om toppmötena om det globala informationssamhället lyckades i uppsåtet att ge marginaliserade aktörer, i första hand FN-systemet och utvecklingsländerna, strukturellt inflytande gällande styrningen av Internet samt tillfört dimensioner av digital solidaritet och internationalisering till den diskurs som historiskt har dominerats av västerlandet, i synnerhet USA. Med utgångspunkt från Michel Foucaults maktbegrepp söks slutdokumenten från WSIS-processen på diskursiva brott som skulle kunna tyda på skiften i maktstrukturerna till de marginaliserade aktörernas fördel. De diskursiva brott som kan tydas i WSIS-dokumenten gäller i första hand begreppet "den digitala klyftan" och medvetandegörandet av bistånds- och utvecklingspolitikens relevans inom "nätets diskurs" (digitalt bistånd). Däremot verkar utestängningsprocedurerna i diskursproduktionen ha lett till att viktiga aspekter om regleringen och styrningen av Internet utlämnats. Följaktligen kan det uttydas att de starka aktörerna har verkat för att den institutionella ordningen gällande Internets styrning inte ska rubbas. I de fall ämnet nämns explicit framgår det tydligt att status quo ska upprätthållas. WSIS-processen lyckades därför inte med ambitionen att öka marginaliserade aktörers inflytande i detta avseende. / Since the Net's humble beginning, Internet regulation and governance has been characterized by a West-centric and techno-meritocratic discourse which, in many ways, has led to the exclusion of major parts of the world from active participation in building the Information Society. In the prevailing order the United States has a privileged position through its indirect control over the Internet‘s strategic resources, i.e. IP-addresses and "root" in the Domain Name System, via a contractual arrangement between the "Department of Commerce" and the organization "Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers" (ICANN). There was furthermore a latent conflict between the United States and Internet community, on the one hand, and the United Nations and its member states, on the other hand, in so far as that the institutional order rested on principles of U.S. civil law instead of international treaties, one of the foundations of the geopolitical system. Hence two conferences in Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005, as two phases of the "World Summit on the Information Society" (WSIS), were organised by the U.N. to raise topics concerning an internationally legitimate regime for Internet governance and the unequal distribution of information- and communications technology (ICT) between rich industrialized nations and poor developing ones. The aim of this study is to investigate whether WSIS managed in its objective of providing marginalized players, primarily the U.N. system and developing nations, structural influence in Internet governance and adding dimensions of digital solidarity and internationalization to a discourse that historically has been dominated by the West, in particular the U.S. Through the prism of Michel Foucault's concepts of power, the final documents from the WSIS process are scrutinized for discursive shifts that could be indicative of actual changes in power structures to the advantage of marginalized players. Discursive shifts, as those detected in the documents, are primarily related to the notion of the "digital divide" and raising awareness for the need of development and foreign aid policies within the context of the "Discourse of the Net" (ICT for development). On the other hand, it would seem that the procedures of exclusion in the formation of discourse have eliminated important aspects of Internet regulation and governance. Subsequently, it can be inferred that powerful players have worked behind the scenes to maintain the current structures of Internet governance. In those passages, where the subject is explicitly mentioned, there are clear references to maintaining the existing status quo. The WSIS process failed consequently in its ambition to increase the influence of marginalized players in this regard.