Beth is a 32-year-old married white female who lives with her husband and her three children (ages 12, 8, and 5). They live in a single family home she owns in an all-white, middle class neighborhood in Conshohocken, PA. Beth is a paralegal employed 40 hours a week for a Center City Philadelphia law firm. Her husband is employed full-time as a maintenance technician with Amtrak. She and her husband have also recently started an Internet retail distribution company of their own. Thus, she uses the internet in her job, her own business, and at home.

Free Time: In her free time Beth plays with her kids, watches sports on television, and visits family. When playing with her children, she says,

"I enjoy observing their body language and attitudes in their most comfortable environment. I put them in charge of choosing the game or activity."

Her favorite television shows include The Practice, Jeopardy, and Law and Order. She enjoys The Practice and Law and Order as "good drama" even though she finds them to be "very unrealistic". She enjoys challenging herself to beat the Jeopardy contestants and also enjoys watching Jeopardy with her older daughter "to give her the chance to answer first".

Beth reports a modest social network including approximately 10 people. She reports staying in contact with almost all of them on a regular basis by seeing them socially, while maintaining contact with approximately one-half of them by email or talking on the telephone. Email has increased the number and quality of her contacts. Beth prefers email to the telephone,

"I've never been much of a phone person. With email you can control the conversation better and not get stuck trying to figure out how to get off the phone."

As a result of this "control", Beth stays in touch almost daily with friends and relatives she previously would only speak with on the phone monthly. Beth notes, "Because we're in touch more frequently we end up remembering to tell each other more about stuff going on in our lives, like our kids' events at school or other things like that."

Internet: Beth has one computer at home, which is connected to the Internet via a high speed DSL modem. She also uses computers at work. She first used the Internet in 1995 at work.

Beth estimates that she uses the computer for email about 8 hours per week. In an average day she sends four personal one-to-one messages, and receives about five in return. She also reports receiving approximately five e-list or junk mail messages per day. Beth does not visit chat rooms or bulletin boards.

Beth spends approximately two hours per day on various web sites. Her three most frequently accessed web sites are ebay.com ("I buy used clothing for the kids at really good prices), disneystore.com ("I check the clearance items for clothing and household items"), and quixtar.com ("it's our on-line business - we buy at a discount and we also earn a percentage on others who buy through us on the site"). She also reports accessing intouch.org every Sunday after church for "Dr. Charles Stanley's devotionals, scripture for the week, inspiring stories and helpful advice".

Beth feels that the internet has "changed her life a great deal" because

"It gives us access to information we never had before; I save time and money shopping; we're rapidly building our own e-commerce business...I may be able to retire in a few years."

Beth reports having been "particularly happy or excited" when she and her husband were introduced to quixtar.com by a friend. "The idea of having my own business with no start-up costs and of getting great discounts without loading the kids into the car to go shopping" were very exciting to her. But she also reports having less smart when it took her almost a week to figure out how to load family photos and send them to friends and relatives. However, finally accomplishing this task did end up making her feel more on top of the technology.

Beth feels her internet usage differs from other people she knows because

"I don't do a lot of surfing. I know what I'm looking for, I get it, and I log off. I also do a lot of buying on the internet. Some of my friends are afraid to put their credit card on the net."

She seemed moderately familiar with technical terminology and seems to be able to navigate the web quite ably to suit her needs.

Interviewer: Yvonne Shands