The ability to create worlds and environments, to construct identities and personalities to interact and share with others, and to personalize or customize interfaces and devices are strong motivators for young people. They expect to be both the producers and consumers of their activities and interactions with others through technology use. Households create and preserve identity through technology. Communicating media offer individuals and households the opportunity to build identity and express it to the outside world. For this reason it is important to look at ethnic and cultural background, work experience, and life stage as well as income and education level as indicators of how communicating media shape identity.
Households establish and control public and private boundaries with technology.
Information and communications technologies and services help households construct boundaries both within the household and between the household and the outside world. Households use devices to screen out the outside world, control access into the home, and develop private and public spaces within the household. Tools that facilitate boundary building and context shifting will be highly valued by households. Households derive value from convenience, cost, and utility. Highly valued tools are those that are used by many household members for many kinds of uses, decreasing the cost per use.