Bringing the Internet Home: Adult Distance Learners and Their Internet, Home, and Work Worlds

Debate about the role of the Internet in everyday life has raised questions about whethertime spent online provides benefits to the individuals who are online and the families andfriends around them. While recent surveys provide data on the overall picture of Internetuse, here we look at adult users' views of what is gained and lost with the additionof online hours to already full schedules. For one year, we followed seventeen adult studentsas they engaged in an Internet-based distance degree program.We explored theirinvolvement with the online learning community, how this affected their relationships withfamily, work, volunteer, and peer groups, and how they managed and juggled their involvementin these multiple social worlds.We find that students' satisfaction with the programincreased, and anxiety about operating in the online world decreased, with increasedinvolvement with the learning community. Although this was often realized in the shortterm at the expense of offline communities and activities, we believe that taking this asa negative effect discounts the very real support that such students were receiving onlinefrom other students.