Internet adoption and use by Kuwait University students: New medium, same old gratifications

This study explored the adoption and use of the Internet by Kuwait University students. A survey administered to a sample of 598 students was designed to understand students' attitudes toward the Internet and to answer questions about factors that best predict the adoption and use of this new communication technology. Questions of interest were: Who used the Internet? How? For what? and Why? The study was based upon two mass communication theories: diffusion of innovations and uses and gratifications. Using multiple regression, two models were developed for predicting Internet adoption and time spent on-line. The first model differentiated between those students who adopted the Internet and those who did not. The model predicted Internet adoption by demographics, education, mass media use, operational skills, information technology ownership, and Internet and personal attitudes. Major findings showed that adopters of the Internet at Kuwait University were more likely to be males, in the College of Engineering, young, with above average GPA and more than average computing skills, who adopted more information technologies, and spent less time watching TV. Adopters were more likely to be innovators, motivated, to have less problems with English, had more technical skills, greater access to the Internet, adopted the Internet for its advantages, and their use of the Internet was more compatible with their culture and religion. The analysis indicated that gratification factors play an important role in Internet service selection and time spent on-line. The study confirmed five proposed gratification dimensions in the framework for studying the Internet. This supported the multimedia feature of the Internet in combining gratifications from mass media and interpersonal media: surveillance/information, entertainment/diversion, interpersonal utility, social interaction, and instrumental/transactional. In the second model, Internet use was explained differently than Internet adoption. Among Internet users at Kuwait University (n = 249), the five major predictors of time spent on line were: social interaction gratification, access from home, length of experience, use of e-mail, and use of WWW. The model confirmed that Internet applications, gratifications, and elements are superior in predicting time spent on-line to background and demographic characteristics.