ABSTRACT
Since the World Wide Web made the Internet accessible for mass audiences in the early and mid-1990s, it has taken its place as the fourth type of mass medium besides print, television, and radio by matching penetration rates and audience sizes. Today, the Internet is omnipresent in people’s lives. According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project, 73 percent of adults in the United States used the Internet in 2006, an increase from 66 percent only a year earlier. In the age groups of the 18-to 29-year-olds and 30-to 49-year-olds, the Internet penetration rate is well over 80 percent at this point. Already in the age group of 12-to 17-year-olds, 87 percent are Internet users (Madden, 2006). This development stresses the current and future importance of the medium. It is further enhanced by the increasing and widespread international adoption of high-speed and wireless Internet connections, which allow users to not only work faster, but also to access their online applications from anywhere. While 42 percent of adults in the United States had a high-speed connection at home, 34 percent of the users entered the Internet through a wireless connection in 2006 (Horrigan, 2006a, 2007). Many of the online activities have become routine tasks for the users. More than 40 percent of American Internet users utilize search engines on a daily basis and more than 50 percent send e-mails (Rainie & Shermak, 2005).
