TY  - CHAP
AB  - Abstract This research draws on qualitative interviews with primarily lower socioeconomic status (SES) public library internet users to illuminate their perceptions of economic benefits afforded by the internet. This powerful evidence challenges utopian new technological theories. The results from this study allow for the comparison of perspectives from Millennials, Generation Xers, Boomers, and the Silent generation. These results suggest a disconnect between the cultural mythology around the internet as an all-powerful tool and the lived experiences of lower SES respondents. Lower SES participants primarily use the internet to train and educate themselves in areas where they would like to work in the process of applying for jobs using the internet. Participants recognized marginal benefits such as socialization and less burdensome job application processes. However, they struggled to identify significant job-related benefits when comparing applying for jobs online as opposed to applying for jobs in person. With the exception of millennials, all generational groups believed in the economic promise of the internet to make their lives easier given enough time. Millennials, however, challenged the techno-utopianism expressed by other generations. Only millennials recognized the realities of digital inequalities that make techno-utopian outcomes unattainable given broader economic realities for low-SES individuals.
VL  - 19
SN  - 978-1-83909-078-3, 978-1-83909-077-6/2050-2060
DO  - 10.1108/S2050-206020190000019010
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1108/S2050-206020190000019010
AU  - Park David J.
ED  - Jeremy Schulz
ED  - Laura Robinson
ED  - Aneka Khilnani
ED  - John Baldwin
ED  - Heloisa Pait
ED  - Apryl A. Williams
ED  - Jenny Davis
ED  - Gabe Ignatow
PY  - 2019
Y1  - 2019/01/01
TI  - Poverty and the Shadow of Utopian Internet Theory: Insights from Interviews with Unemployed Internet Users Living Below the Poverty Line
T2  - Mediated Millennials
T3  - Studies in Media and Communications
PB  - Emerald Publishing Limited
SP  - 175
EP  - 197
Y2  - 2024/04/24
ER  -