## 2 Data and Methods
### Data Reduction  
We reduce our two batteries of questions using factor analysis with principal components extraction and varimax rotation. We run a factor analysis on each battery because these two batteries do not have the same responses. The factor analysis for the General Internet Activity battery produced two factors. One factor is composed of these activities: (1) get news; (2) check weather reports and forecasts; (3) look online for news or information about politics or the 2008 campaigns; (4) visit a state, local, or government website; (5) use an online search engine to help you find information on the Web; (6) watch a video on a video-sharing site like YouTube or Google Video. We label these six variables together as \"Basic Communication Activities\". These activities are characterized mainly by a one-way interaction with the internet. The user is gathering information that has already been packaged for consumption [35; 36; 37]. Basic communication activities are most likely the first activity done by novice users and require the least amount of familiarity with the internet. The second factor is composed of these activities: (1) send instant messages to someone who is online at the same time; (2) create or work on your own online journal or blog; (3) read someone else's online journal or blog; (4) use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn.com; (5) download a podcast so that you can listen to it or view it later; (6) watch video on a video-sharing site like YouTube or GoogleVideo; (7) download or share files using peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, such as BitTorrent or LimeWire. We label this collection of activities \"Advanced Communication Activities\". This factor is characterized by the user taking more control of the products available on the internet. Either the user is creating new products for the internet, or the user is circumventing the predetermined channels for the standard user (using peer-to-peer file sharing networks, such as BitTorrent or LimeWire). Activity (6) (watch a video on a video-sharing site like YouTube or Google Video), is included in both the basic and advanced communications list of activities based on the results of the factor analysis. A factor analysis was also run on the Social Networking battery of questions, but only one factor was extracted--composed of all the variables from the battery. Thus, all the questions from the social networking battery can be combined into one scale. Social networking is, in relation to the other two scales, the most advanced set of activities, and requires the most amount of internet knowledge. Social networking is characterized by two-way communications, and the development of content and interest based groups. In other words, social networking can lead to \"virtual cliques\". As in reality, these virtual cliques can monopolize information leading to disproportionate benefits for the in-group. As a consequence, this aspect of the internet has also been widely discussed [38, 39, 40, 41]. Factor loadings are presented in Table 3.  
In sum, we have three dependent variables--\"Basic Communication Activities\", \"Advanced Communication Activities\", and \"Social Networking\". We conducted a reliability analysis on the variables that compose each factor. If the variables are sufficiently correlated (as evidenced by an alpha of over.700), then we can combine the variables that load onto each factor into a more understandable scale. The alpha for \"Basic Communication Activities\" was.893; it was.763 for \"Advanced Communication Activities\", and it was.869 for \"Social Networking\". These high alphas suggest that we can create three scales. We interpret these scales such that higher scores mean that a respondent or group is doing more internet activities within this specific domain. It would be safe to argue that there is an increase in complexity from basic communication to advanced communication.