In class, we each had to read an article that was related to the Web in general. My group was assigned an article named, "Does Using the Internet Make People More Satisfied with Their Lives? The Effects of the Internet on College Students' School Life Satisfaction." The article presented a study that is still fairly new today and it examines different personalities such as introverts and extroverts; and has the students filling out a questionnaire about how the Internet makes students feel. It discusses self-efficacy, self-esteem, social outcome expectations, behavior, and environment. The summary of this is basically the more extroverted you are in your "real life" the more extroverted you are more likely to be on the Internet. But, also keep in mind that you can be a completely different person on the Internet and that plays a factor into this as well. The other observation was that introverted people didn't use it for social activities but more for games and information; or if they felt like they couldn't socialize in their "real life" they could socialize on the Internet. Another factor taken into account with this was their environment and how college students and how this affected their use of the Internet. Towards the end of the article, since this is all very new, they mentioned that they had limitations and not everything was taken into account. So, they stated that a good way to see if their lives are more satisfactory with the Internet is to take into account how they use the Internet. What websites are they visiting? Do their personalities come into play? Are they the same on the Internet as they are in their "real lives?"
I found a paper that was written in 2003 by two different authors. It's titled, "Individual Differences in Internet Usage Motives," written for a conference. They take into account three different personality types [psychotic, neurotic, and extravert] and have the students fill out a questionnaire about their personalities, their habits, and what types of devices they use on the Internet. So, while this paper is not venturing far from the previous article I was given, it is looking at it from a slightly different perspective. It's looking at specific types of personalities (and while it may be a little outdated) it's still pretty relevant to this day (you would just need to add in many more new devices that have come about since 2003). They hypothesized the usual predictions one would have about these different personalities and then they had the students fill out the 3 different surveys. They were asked to report on a scale of 1 to 9 their computer expertise (1 being the lowest and 9 being the highest). Then, they were asked to report on how much they used certain Internet applications (they were supplied with a list) and had to rate on a scale of 1 to 9 how often they used them (same scale rules apply). Finally, they were asked to report on why they used these different technologies (their motives) and these were divided into 4 categories (interpersonal/communication utility, entertainment, information, and convenience). They also took gender into account when taking these surveys but gender didn't seem to prove significant in this research.
The results of this survey were not the same as they hypothesized and not what you would normally expect out of the different personalities. The extraverts seemed to "reject" the Internet for personal communication and socializing. "Instead, those scoring high on the extraversion prefer to voice their opinion. Moreover, extraverts tend to use the Internet to do research and to share music with others." (Amiel, Sargent, Page 13). Although, those that scored high in neuroticism tended to be females. In addition, these people are quite the opposite of the extraverts and want to use the Internet to "escape loneliness" and "belong to a group." However, they do not use it to take part in one-on-one discussions or online chat groups. "Finally, those scoring high on N demonstrate an interest in alternative news and a need to learn about potential threats ("so that I can learn about what could happen to me")." (Amiel, Sargent, Page 14). And finally, those scoring high on the psychoticism side displayed just generally uninterested in communicating with others on the Internet. These people had more interesting motives, "including pass time, nudity and pornography web-sites, and file-sharing services." (Amiel, Sargent, Page 15). They also use it for finding information about people and what could happen to them. One could also make a guess that they could be the people to create fake websites since this type of personality in a person usually disregards the rules in society.
This article seemed to go more in-depth about what types of websites people used based on their personality types and if that was really helping to satisfy their lives. In this perspective, these people are, in general, using the website to enhance their lives and hopefully making it more satisfying. They are able to use the Internet for several different motives and can accomplish many different goals on it. Students can share music, files, find out what's going in the world, socialize with their peers, and many other things. So it's taking a look at the patterns of what different types of students use the Internet and their patterns of Internet usage. Unless, a student is completely disinterested in technology and does not like it; the Internet can only enhance your life with the buttload of information at your fingertips and different social networking sites.
Here's the link to the paper if you would like to take a look at the tables generated from the results of the surveys. Or if you wanted to read the paper, it really is interesting to see how different personality types can use the Internet.
http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=6&hid=113&sid=daff3596-fd6c-481e-94d0-6dcd2304dcb0%40sessionmgr114
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