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The network society in Catalonia 239THE USES OF THE INTERNET IN EVERYDAY LIFEStudies on the uses of the Internet have shown that people adapt the Internetto their needs and projects, rather than submitting to the logic of the technology.Thus, the uses of the Internet are an extension and specification of whatpeople do, want, and feel in their everyday lives (Haythornthwaite andWellman, 2002). Our own study in Catalonia has tried to test this hypothesisby asking people to report the activities they regularly perform on the Internet.Table 10.1 shows the findings. Let us emphasize the main results beforebriefly elaborating on their meaning.As in all other studies, electronic mail is the most frequent activity: theInternet is, above all, a medium of communication for all kinds of purposes.There are two leading activities: one is what we could call leisure-orientedactivities, such as surfing without a precise goal or downloading music; theother is searching for information for practical uses, such as consultinglibraries, travel information, or looking for information concerning publicservices or shows in town. A third level of frequency concerns participation inchats.Uses for sociability are less diffused, and shopping on line is minimal.Teleworking or distant education concerns a very small proportion of the userpopulation. It is interesting to observe that the proportion of users looking atpornography is rather moderate (8.8 percent), and sharply differentiated bygender (3 percent of women versus 13 percent of men), and by age (it is highlyconcentrated in the male age group of 20–29 years). On the other hand, usesfor sociability (such as reaching out to friends when people feel “low”) are lessfrequent, and the use of the Internet to organize children or family activities israre. So are uses of the Internet for political purposes.This pattern of Internet use is differentiated by the social characteristics ofthe users. Simplifying our observations, young users (up to 29 years old)display a higher proportion of leisure-oriented activities and participation inchats. Mature professionals tend to use the Internet for their work and forinformation searches, including searching for news. The use of the Internet forpractical purposes, such as accessing public services, increases with age. Andthe youngest users (15–19 years) are those who are most interested in videogames and chats.There are therefore few surprises in our findings: Internet use followspeople’s dominant patterns of behavior, derived from their social characteristics.Teenagers play and chat. Young people are more leisure-oriented thanwork-oriented. The opposite trend is perceived among professionals andhighly educated people. And the older the user, the more important theInternet becomes as a source of help in managing the practical matters ofeveryday life. There are few political uses of the Internet because there is a