Investigating the temporal dynamics of Internet activities

Abstract

The temporal dimensions of Internet use have been primarily examined as daily or weekly totals in the literature, which ignores other important structural dimensions of time and the contextual nature of Internet use. Using event history analysis, this study provides a nuanced analysis of the timing and duration of Internet use with an Internet-activity diary dataset collected in Columbus (Ohio, USA) in 2003–2004. Compared to the analysis of daily totals, the fine-grained analysis reveals that besides social, demographic, and geographic factors, the attributes of Internet episodes, such as activity purpose, also significantly affect both the timing and duration, and these temporal dimensions of Internet use are also connected.