Abstract

The two-fold purpose of the current study was to examine the relationship between belief that science and technology makes lives better and Internet use in social survey data and to better describe technology belief and Internet user groups. The association between perceived usefulness and actual use, as identified in the Technology Acceptance Model, was validated in the current study using full-probability sampling. Internet use was lowest for Americans who strongly disagreed that technology makes lives better. Americans who believed science and technology bettered lives were 76% more likely to use the Internet more than an average of 12 hours per week. Means of eight explanatory variables were observed to better describe belief in technology and Internet user groups. A Belief High Use group (Americans who agreed science and technology bettered lives and used the Internet more than average) had highest income and correctly identified the most vocabulary words. The No Belief Low Use group (users who disagreed that technology bettered lives and used the Internet less than average) worked the fewest hours, had the least time to relax, reported fewest years of school, and correctly identified the fewest vocabulary words.

Citation

Menard, L. (2020). Belief that Technology Betters Lives and Internet Usage. In D. Schmidt-Crawford (Ed.), Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International Conference (pp. 287-293). Online: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved August 10, 2024 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/215763/.

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