Personal Empowerment in the Study of Home Internet Use by Low-Income Families

Abstract

This article describes the personal transformations experienced by participants during a study of home Internet use by low-income families. The study was designed to collect data related to the barriers, benefits, and perceived worth of the Internet to low-income families. Specifically, it asked what families designated as informationally disadvantaged would actually do online given unrestricted home Internet access. This research project provided the prerequisite resources necessary for “ideal” home Internet use to six low-income urban families. The experiences of these participants between December 1994 and January 1996 provide research-based evidence affirming the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s (1995) thesis that many of those “most disadvantaged in terms of absolute computer and modem penetration are the most enthusiastic users of online services that facilitate economic uplift and empowerment” (p. 3). The ethnographically informed results of this study indicate that home Internet access enabled the research participants to experience powerful emotional and psychological transformations. In this article we share segments of participants’ personal transformations of identity, education, and community, transformations contributing to what has popularly becme known as empowerment.