Jerry is a 38-year old married white male, who lives with his wife and 10-year old son in their rowhome in northeast Philadelphia's Castor Gardens section. This middle class neighborhood is comprised of a diverse mix of families, many of whom are first or second generation immigrants to this country. Like many of his neighbors, Jerry is Jewish, with family roots in Eastern Europe. Other near neighbors are Asians from Cambodia, Vietnam and India, as well as African Americans.

Jerry has a master's degree and works 35 hours per week as a computer support specialist, fixing computers, purchasing computers and software, and providing software support. His wife is a social worker.

Free Time: Jerry's favorite free time activity is watching baseball, both on TV and at live games. He has been a fan of the Phillies all his life and he particularly enjoys sharing the game with his son now. Jerry is a frequent newspaper reader, following current events and world politics in several local and national newspapers.

The work he does around his house gives Jerry a special sense of pride and accomplishment, "...whether it's installing a toilet or a light fixture, I'm good at reading instructions." The money he saves by doing-it-himself is an added bonus, in Jerry's view.

Jerry reluctantly admitted that his favorite TV shows are "Emergency Vet," (I love watching the animals get taken care of."); "Everybody Loves Raymond," and "In Bed With Bruce." The latter is shown weekly on Channel 54, a local university's public access station. "It's this guy with a huge bed. He's gay, and he interviews other people in the gay community, does skits, and makes fun of people, like David Letterman does." Jerry sang the praises of this channel in general, saying that he watches it all the time. "It's the revolutionary channel, showing solely stuff about women's rights, black issues - the alternative stories. If you really want to learn things that you won't get on scripted Channel 6 [the ABC affiliate], watch Channel 54."

Internet: Jerry counts about a dozen friends or relatives with whom he stays in touch, socially , in person, by phone, and by occasionally sending cards by U.S. mail. He also exchanges email with about half of these 12 people. Jerry reported neither chat room nor instant message usage. He has been using the internet since 1995, when he first used it at his job. On his home computer, Jerry connects to the web via modem and a regular phone line. At work, his PC connects via a high speed "Ethernet" line.

He sends personal emails from home about 30 minutes per day, and, from his job, about 30 minutes per week. At work he spends about an hour a day on business-related email. He estimates sending an average of 5 email messages per day, all of which are personal, one-to-one messages, while receiving an average of 4 email messages per day (just half of which are personal, one-to-one.) Email is exchanged primarily with work associates, but also with one non-work friend, twice per week.

His contacts have increased since he started using email, "because our staff at work has increased'; but the quality of contact has stayed the same, "because people haven't increased their writing skills."

Jerry's non-email internet usage consumes about 30 hours per week. That's 8 hours at home, plus 22 hours at work. He seems to be a fairly savvy user. He uses several search engines, Yahoo and Copernick, which he says, actually searches 20 engines at once. In his personal use, Jerry tends to return repeatedly to the same few sites. For work, he is generally tracking down a variety of products or information, and he goes to new sites each time he uses the Web. Jerry most frequently goes to Phillies.com, where he keeps up with his team, and watches their standings and statistics. He also uses Yahoo.com, where he reads the news, domestic and international, and msn.com, his default opening page for consulting news updates (mostly concerning politics.)

In his most recent use of the internet, Jerry spent most time looking for a statistical software package, called "nudist" for someone at his job. He started at Copernick.com, which pointed him to QSR.com (QSR being the software's manufacturer). Jerry frequently does this type of searching as part of his job, and gets a lot of satisfaction "just locating things...that were hard to locate or track down." At home, Jerry uses CompuServe, and since he's usually helping his son access the internet for entertainment, they go to sites related to program content or games on the sites related to The Disney Channel, or Nickelodeon, or the Phillies.

Other than for news and sports, when using the internet for himself, Jerry also has recently gone to the medline.com site for information on several health concerns.

Jerry related an internet experience that was exciting for him, concerning tracking down information about his uncle, a musician who collaborated with Leonard Bernstein. It excited Jerry that' "His name was there! It was a thrill."

When asked what angers or upsets him on the web, Jerry replied, " Man, that's easy - You want a list?" He mentioned having seen material from hate groups - Aryan and nazi groups, specifically, as recently as 2 or 3 weeks ago.

Jerry says he uses the computer for most of the day, and considers his internet usage as higher than that of others he knows, and explains

"I have a very fast connection, so it's easier to jump among sites and look at lots of things very quickly. I've been using it for so many years, I have an advantage. I know a lot of search engines."

His own personality makes a difference, he believes. "I'm very persistent. I believe everything's out there and I don't give up until I get what I need."

At work, if he did not have the internet to do his job: "I'd be searching through catalogues and making a lot of phone calls." Personally, without the internet, Jerry says he would survive by reading the newspaper more.

For all of his familiarity and experience, Jerry doesn't say the internet has changed his life much. "It takes a lot more than a computer to change my life." He sees the internet as primarily a tool.

"I don't find it a miracle. I'm not one of those people who can't get off of it. I don't get the people who go overboard. When I leave work, I leave it there. It's useful, but I'm not in love with it."

Interviewer: Carolyn Rahe