Interviews

I’ll break this out by interviewee. This was an interesting assignment because it got me out of my own head and into the perspective of other people. In some ways I was surprised by the results but I suppose the stereotypes that I apply to internet use due to age aren’t all that accurate anymore. Perhaps this is a testament to the proliferation of the internet in our society? Ok, I’ll stop blabbing and let the three people I interviewed do most the talking.  The names have been changed to “protect the innocent.” Except for nicknames, I kept those (if the person had one) and got permission to use them instead of the real names.

First, “lil’ cutie” was my over 60 interview. Lil’ Cutie owns and operates an internet based baseball card shop. That aspect threw a unique twist into the mix.  In regards to the business, Lil’ Cutie used to own a physical card shop in Clairemont California. The shop was quite successful but, as Lil’ Cutie puts it he wanted to “stretch his legs” a little bit and so he and his family “moved to the vastness of Bend Oregon.” At the time of the move he didn’t use the internet at all. That would have been pre-1997. When he moved to Bend in the Fall of ’97 he decided that he was going to sell baseball cards via mail order only. For him the internet was only valuable inasmuch as it provided opportunity for his business. When he started using the internet in 1999 it was only for email. He didn’t use any other features. He was running mail order ads and wanted to have an email address for people to contact him through. He only used email minimally and only tied to the business. He didn’t communicate with friends or family through email until around 2002 when they began to send him emails. Even today he doesn’t use email to solicit personal communication with people he knows, but he will reply to emails from other people he knows. The only other development for him was when eBay entered the scene. He set up an eBay account to fulfill orders online as well. Since he has been in the baseball card business for some time he has some contacts who prefer postal mail but he finds most of his business is on eBay. He doesn’t use the internet for anything other than eBay and email. He still checks card values in the old Becket books and doesn’t use the internet to keep up with hobbies or interests. For him it is all about utility.

“See-tata-my-lada-my-itti-bitti-bayba” (no joke, I confirmed it as this persons nickname!) was my 36-60 interviewee. We’ll call her Seet. Seet remembers when the internet first came around. Though for her it was too cumbersome to be useful. She remembers her first experience with it was viewing it on a friends computer. Her friend seemed enamored with the experience of finding particular websites and likened it to a “treasure hunt.” But when Seet gave it  a try she got so frustrated with how hard it was to use with it she didn’t touch the internet again until… AOL. America Online revolutionized the internet experience for Seet. She again was introduced to AOL at a friends house (same one as before… its all in the details right?) and it was here that she found the ability to navigate the internet. For her the most appealing aspect was the social aspect. She recalls keeping a journal of screen names of people she’d meet on AOL. She’d record peoples likes, dislikes and availability (she was single at the time). But she quickly grew overwhelmed at the immensity of the internet. There were so many screen names that she couldn’t keep up. Over the course of a year she began to loose interest in chatting with people in chatrooms and on instant messager because she couldn’t keep track of everyone. She found that the people who she would have a few run ins with would eventually disappear and her efforts to connect seemed more meaningless at that point. It was then that she began to use the internet for only two things, shopping and keeping in touch with people she also knew physically. She found this aspect of the internet to be very satisfying. Her usage dropped though she always saw it as an opportunity to connect. (And the answer is no, she didn’t meet her current husband online… I was disappointed since that would have been the true coupe de grace)

My last interviewee was 18, right on the edge of the 18-35 group. “Megee-magoo” or “Meg” has an interesting story with the internet. She didn’t use the internet at all for some time. She was homeschooled and says she grew up not needing to use it. She would mostly use the internet when needed to research a topic for an assignment. She said her parents didn’t encourage internet use and as such she didn’t give it much thought. This is atypical for what I expected in this age group. The twist is at the age of 16 Meg developed an eye condition called Keratoconus. My understanding is it means the cornea is degenerative and it is difficult to remedy. For Meg this meant the year she was going to enter High School here eyesight was quickly degenerating. Her first year of High School saw her struggling to keep up due to chronic eye pain and frequent headaches impeding her progress. The school allowed her to try to catch up with summer school but since her condition was proving elusive for treatment she had to find a flexible alternative for her schooling. She says that is when she really began to use the internet through an online High School program. She said there was an entry counselor who also suffered from Keratoconus and that opened up a lot of opportunity for her to learn about her condition while working at her own pace with school. She still doesn’t use the internet due to her eye condition but she is completely reliant on it for her schooling. She amplifies the webpage text by 200% to get through what she has to then she stops using the internet until more study is required.

I must have had a strange sampling of people. It was not intended. I knew my young interviewee had some difficulty with vision but never knew that would mean a skew of what I expected with my data. It seems to me that the internet is mostly about utility for the older generations and as you get younger the internet becomes more of an opportunity for layered possibilities.

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