The Social, Political, and Cultural Impact of New Technologies: Insights from Surveys of Internet Use

这项研究项目的目的是探索互联网对1)社会不平等、2)协商民主和3)文化选择的影响。一项调查将收集与这三个潜在影响领域中每一个领域相关的当前做法的高质量数据。在每一种情况下，数据都将使评估两种或更多种不同观点在多大程度上符合迄今发展起来的互联网使用模式成为可能。解决社会不平等和民主的问题是：互联网是否会通过使知识更便宜、更广泛地获得来促进平等？或者，随着地位较高的人获得有关如何使用这些新技术的相应知识的特权，它会加剧这种情况吗？人们到底在多大程度上出于政治目的而使用互联网？关于文化选择，调查将探索当前用户访问的网站的多样性，并收集有关互联网用户目前使用搜索策略和工具的程度的数据，这些搜索策略和工具允许访问大部分互联网，或者将选择限制在相对较少的预先选择的网站上。这项研究建议在一个由社会科学家和物理学家组成的科学咨询委员会的帮助下，制定互联网使用的这些方面的几个指标，该委员会对这些技术的潜在社会影响非常熟悉。然后，将使用芝加哥大学总社会调查2000年样本中丰富的、可在全国推广的数据库，收集有关这些指标的数据。将花费相当大的努力收集受访者使用互联网的数据，使受访者能够用自己的话描述互联网的影响，并制定编码，以反映其答复的丰富性。与其他GSS数据一样，这些收集的数据将迅速和容易地提供给不同学科和研究环境的学者。预计大多数问题将适用于今后的全面社会保障调查，以跟踪这些技术的潜在长期影响。

The aim of this research project is to explore the implications of the Internet for I ) social inequality; 2) deliberative democracy, and 3) cultural choice. A survey will gather high-quality data on current practices relevant to each of these three areas of potential impact. In each case, data will make it possible to evaluate the extent to which two or more alternative perspectives are consistent with patterns of Internet use as they have developed to date. Questions addressing social inequality and democracy are: Will the Internet increase equality by making knowledge cheaper and more widely available? Or will it exacerbate it, as high-status persons gain privileged access to consequential knowledge about how to use these new technologies? To what extent are people using the Internet for political purposes at all? Regarding cultural choice, the survey will explore the diversity of the sites that current users visit, and gather data on the extent to which Internet users currently employ search strategies and tools that permit access to much of the Internet or instead restrict choice to a relatively few pre-selected sites. The study proposes to develop several indicators of these aspects of Internet use with the help of a Scientific Advisory Board of both social scientists and physical scientists highly familiar with the potential social impacts of these technologies. Data will then be collected on these indicators using the rich and nationally generalizable data base of the General Social Survey of the University of Chicago in its Year 2000 sample. Considerable effort will be expended in collecting data on respondents' use of the Internet that will allow respondents to describe the impact of the Internet in their own words, and in developing codings that will capture the richness of their responses. Like other GSS data, those collected here will be rapidly and readily made available to scholars in a variety of disciplines and research settings. It is expected that most of the questions would be applicable in future GSS surveys in order to track the potential long-tern impacts of these technologies.