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the World Wide Web. The investigation identified five key underlying dimensions
of Web use motivation: Searching, Cognition, New and Unique, Socialization, and
Entertainment. Interestingly, the three dimensions of motivation represented by the
searching, new/unique and entertainment factors appear to represent various
mixtures of the two general media gratifications of process and content.
Moreover, the analysis indicates that four out of five underlying motivations are
related to high affinity for computers, and three of those motivations are
significantly related to more frequent use of the Web. Interestingly, only one the
motivations (search) is significantly related to frequency of computer use. Thus, it seems
that respondents motivated by searching on the Web tend to like and need the computer and
use it frequently to search the Web.
However, respondents motivated by entertainment or new and unique things
on the Web seem to have a high need for and liking of the computer and spend a
lot of time using the Web, but not necessarily the computer itself. Although this might
initially seem contradictory since computers are used to access the Internet, this
finding might indicate that individuals see themselves as using the Web quite a bit for
new and entertaining things, and like and need their computer for that specific use,
but they don’t see themselves as using the computer much, otherwise.
The one positive and significant relationship for the social factor was with
affinity for the computer. It is possible that those seeking social gratifications for
Web use see the computer as a telecommunications device to contact peers, and
that it represents a social outlet, much like a phone. Moreover, it is possible that
those individuals who have a higher affinity for the computer may actually be more
interested in using their computers
to interface with their peers (or, perhaps, find
it more convenient
or even prefer to do so), as compared to direct interpersonal
social interactions and entertainment activities. The characterization of an “Internet
Hermit”
comes to mind in this regard; for these individuals, the Web may be a
primary source of socialization and fun.
There are interesting implications to these results, since they appear to suggest
a case of socialization made possible through a commercial mass medium. The
only other communication medium that even partially affords this possibility is the