ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a brief survey of the development of the Internet in Trinidad and of why the Internet is currently ‘hot’. It presents a short general introduction to Trinidad, followed by four portraits of households using the Internet drawn from survey. The chapter considers the relationship between the Internet and a variety of social divisions such as class, gender, ethnicity and age. Trinidad is important in that it defies most generalizations that till recently divided the world between areas of considerable Internet access and those with a dearth. The Meadows exemplifies what in Trinidad are called ‘residential areas’ which are built as ‘up-scale’ enclaves, in this case the wealthiest residential area in Chaguanas. Both business and private users could understand the Internet either as several quite separate or as a bundle of integrated technologies. It was mere coincidence that websites, email and chat were accessed through the same mechanism.
