Computers, Phones and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology

Kraut, R. E., Brynin, M. & Kiesler, S. (2006). Computers, Phones, and the Internet: Domesticating Information Technology. NY: Oxford University Press. Table of contents, abstracts, and selected preprints Order from Amazon

"Everything you want to know about the social impact of new information and communication technologies and how you can judge whether you know it. Chapters in this book cover a great range of uses of new technologies among adults and youth in the U.S. and Europe. All are empirically based, theoretically grounded, and open about the limitations as well as the strengths of their findings. The introductory chapter is at once an excellent overview directing readers to chapters of interest and a substantively insightful guide to the conceptual and methodological problems inherent in disentangling cause and effect in research on richly embedded interactive networked media."
--Tora K. Bikson, Senior Behavioral Scientist, RAND Corporation

"The Internet and mobile phones have become embedded in our everyday life. Crammed with authoritative authors and fascinating articles, this book tells the story about how new media have become important parts of our homes, friendships, and communities."
--Barry Wellman, Professor of Sociology, University of Toronto

During the past decade, technology has become ever more pervasive, increasingly influencing our work, personal, and social lives. Computers, phones, and the Internet have an enormous influence not only on how we function at work, but also on how we communicate, interact, and manage our lives outside the office. Researchers from a number of countries and a variety of disciplines have been documenting the effects that these types of technology have on the social lives of individuals, families, and other groups. They have explored questions such as how people use computers, phones, and the Internet, how they integrate new technology into their daily routines, and how family function, relationships, education, and socialization are changing as a result. Unfortunately, these researchers publish their work in very different forums, so it is difficult to get a current and coherent view of the literature. This book solves that problem by bringing together the leading researchers currently investigating how information and communication technology has affected our lives outside the workplace. It consolidates the top research in this fast-changing area, evaluates methods for data collection and analysis, and identifies future directions for research. Computers, Phones, and the Internet will appeal to professionals and students in human-technology interaction, social psychology, sociology, and communications.

Robert Kraut is Herbert A. Simon Professor of Human-Computer Interaction at Carnegie Mellon University. He received his Ph.D. in social psychology from Yale University in 1973, and previously taught at the University of Pennsylvania and at Cornell University. He was a research scientist at AT&T Bell Laboratories and Bell Communications research for twelve years. Dr. Kraut has broad interests in the design and social impact of computing and conducts research on everyday use of the Internet, technology and conversation, collaboration in small work groups, computing in organizations, and contributions to online communities. More information about Dr. Kraut and his work is available on this website.

Malcolm Brynin has been a researcher at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at the University of Essex for the last sixteen years. His main research interest is using large-scale data sets to study the relationships among education, skills, and the labor market and the effects of new technology on these variables. His publications in this area appear in The European Sociological Review; The British Journal of Sociology; Work, Employment and Society, and New Technology, Work and Employment.

Sara Kiesler is Hillman Professor of Computer Science and Human-Computer Interaction in the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon University, with courtesy appointments in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences and the Department of Psychology at Carnegie Mellon University. More information about her work is available at www.cs.cmu.edu/~kiesler/.