This development has implications for the legitimacy and the quality of information, advice and support. The emergence of a new virtual middle class. The key is the combination of strategic access both to information and to each other. Patterns of usage are interesting but difficult to get a systematic handle on. There is evidence that teenagers are dropping off the Internet.
Homeless groups are enthusiastic users.
Elderly people are using it much more than anticipated. There is evidence of a narrowing gap in the gendered use of Internet. This conceals interesting differences, for example, that girls use email much more and games much less than boys. We tend to think of technologies in the abstract as substituting for existing activities, and this is the marketing hype. But invariably they turn out to merely to augment or supplement existing activities.