THE SOCIAL DIMENSION OF INTERNET DIFFUSION IN ROMANIA: EXAMINING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN INTERNET USES AND FREQUENCIES

The paper looks at a representative sample of Romanian Internet users, intending to differentiate between factors that are influencing the frequency of use. It describes the statistical setting of occasional users versus the group of regular Internet users that currently represent the main policy focus of the European Commission, synthesizing and analysing some of the findings. The authors then propose a general access equation looking at a large number of usual access factors. A logistic model is tested for similar sets of factors allowing comparison between impacts on the two mentioned groups of internet users. We found that the education level and the location of household may act as proxies for use mode selection and for communication intensity. However, factors not taken into account in these equations seem to be responsible for much more of the difference between the behaviours of the two groups of users, rather than usual access factors. These factors are related to motivations and the last and newest part of the paper is dedicated to the finding of the differentiated impact of utilitarian versus social motivations on the frequency of use. Our analysis, based on a descriptive type of model, reveals the important role that different types of uses play in the transition from occasional to intensive use, and that the main statistically significant differences between intensive and occasional users come from social motivations, out of which the uploading self-created content seems to be the most relevant. Policy makers could focus on the fusion of utilitarian and social motivations as a phenomenal driver of Internet diffusion, using the mix as a catalyser to bridge the important divides in both use and access that still reign in the Romanian information society.