A brief exploration of the development of Internet use for communication among undergraduate students

This study examined the growth in e-mail, MSN, and chatroom uses longitudinally among 280 Taiwanese college students. Data were collected at five points in time over a two-and-half-year period. Little change in the mean level of e-mail use was observed, while MSN showed an inverse U-shaped development. The use of chatroom seemed to decrease slightly over time. Almost all autocorrelations for three mediums were statistically significant. As moderate to low correlations were found among e-mail, MSN, and chatroom uses, future research should explore which factors may affect the growth of these three mediums.