The internet in everyday life - Computer networking from the standpoint of the domestic user

This article reports the findings of an ethnographic study of internet use conducted in Vancouver, Canada. Our goal was to examine how non-professional users interpret, 'domesticate' (Silverstone, 1994) and creatively appropriate (Feenberg, 1999) the internet in order to integrate it into the relevance structures and activities of their everyday lives. We identify new cultural practices emerging on this basis and reflect on what these practices mean for the social shaping of the internet as a communication medium. The methods of data collection included ethnographic interviews, and 'tours' of the home and computer space of 30 domestic users of the internet in different socio-biographical situations.