Motivations for and Barriers to Internet Usage: Results of a National Public Opinion Survey

There has been an explosion of interest in and surveys on the Internet. Most interest focuses primarily on the commercial potential and secondarily on the demographics of users, often ignoring the perceptions of nonusers—many of whom will eventually become users (Dataquest, 1995; Nielsen Media, 1996; Public Perspective, 1996). Thus, despite the plethora of surveys, significant subjects appear to be unexplored, both among users and especially relative to the general population. Hence our purpose is to complement existing studies by looking at both users and nonusers.