Charles is a 27-year-old single white male who lives alone in a duplex he rents in a racially integrated, working class to lower middle class neighborhood in northwest Philadelphia known as Overbrook. Charles has a master's degree in political science and is working toward his doctorate. He is employed full-time as high school history teacher in the Philadelphia public school system. He uses the Internet in this job primarily for email.

Free Time: In his free time Charles golfs, plays softball, shoots pool, and plays Sony PlayStation games. He does all of these activities with friends well enough to belong to a few leagues. He enjoys golf because he finds it "particularly (mentally) challenging; it always forces you to try to do better." His favorite television shows include Simpsons ("it's well-written, humorous, and satirical), Seinfeld re-runs, and Law and Order.

Charles reports a large social network including approximately 100 people. He reports staying in contact with almost all of them on a regular basis by using email, the telephone, and seeing them socially. Currently he writes no letters or cards and reports never having been much for writing. However, email has greatly increased both the number of his contacts and the quality of his contacts.

"It's easier to use than regular mail. It's faster. You can send it quicker. You don't have to worry about postage. It's something you could do during the normal course of your day. You get a quicker response for questions that you have."

Charles also uses instant messaging frequently and enjoys it because "it's very fast and gives you the impression that you're actually talking to your friend."

Internet: Charles has two computers at home, which are connected to the Internet via a high speed DSL modem. He also uses computers at work. He first used the Internet in 1995 at school.

Charles estimates that he uses the computer for email about 12 hours per week. In an average day he sends about 14 personal one-to-one messages, and receives about 38 in return. He also reports receiving only a few e-list or junk mail messages per day.

Charles visits chat rooms and bulletin boards for about one hour per week. He primarily goes to bulletin boards to trade live music shows with other users. He's learned "that there's a lot of people interested in the same things I am."

Charles spends approximately 30 hours per week on various web sites, almost all of which are related to music, movies, or sports. His three most frequently accessed web sites are musiccity.com (MP3's and movies I like to watch and listen to for free), philadelphonic.com (a bulletin board trading live shows), and live365.com (internet radio stations). He no longer purchases any CD's or movies; instead downloading them free from the internet. Last week, Charles became "particularly happy or excited" because he "found the D encription code for DIVX movies and it unscrambles the encription so now I can download DVD quality movies and watch them on my PC for free." The thing that made Charles feel less smart was "..opening an email containing a virus...it was an email from some unknown person and I clicked on it anyhow."

Charles seemed very knowledgeable regarding both software and hardware issues. His system includes some of the most expensive and up-to-date technology, which he has assembled all himself. He seems to utilize the internet almost solely for entertainment purposes, including social email, obtaining music and movies, checking on sports scores, etc. Although he is pursuing his doctorate and is a teacher, he made almost no mention of research or other educational usage of the internet.

Interviewer: Yvonne Shands