The habitus of internet users

The habitus of internet users. On the one hand, it can be argued as improving people’s cultural capital by playing various major roles in their daily lives (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits, 2009. Liu, 2010). On the other hand, it also presents disturbing issues as a disruption to traditional norms and practices and a threat to identity and information privacy (Bernal, 2010. Zillien and Hargittai, 2009). This paper analyzes Internet usage as an element of modern habitus and the issues that come with it. The issues of using the Internet as part of the habitus of Internet users are perceptions of the Internet as part of real, everyday life, the dangers of symbiotic relationships between Internet firms and users, and social stratification that results from Internet use.Different people and groups integrate the Internet into their lives in various degrees. Schutz (in Schutz and Luckmann, 1973) states that the daily life-world is “man’s [sic] fundamental and paramount reality’ (p.3 cited in Liu, 2010, p.528). It is the present that concerns and absorbs his energies. Bourdieu’s habitus can be placed in daily life as patterns of conduct that shapes behaviors and everyday activities (Noble and Watkins, 2003, p.522). People use the Internet as part of their various activities, such as to be entertained, to gather information, to share and add to existing knowledge, and to interact with others, among many of its various functions (Cool, Seitz, and Mestrits, 2009). The issue in this section of the paper is the integration, or lack thereof, level of the Internet into people’s habitus.Young people, specifically the Millenials, have grown with the Internet age. The effects of the Internet on their habitus deserve special consideration since they can carry on these influences in the long run, and create a new habitus of the future that is unlike that of the previous twenty or&nbsp.thirty years. Liu (2010) studied and compared the Internet practices of Chinese and Norwegian high school students using Schutz’s (1970) ideas on zones of interests or relevance. Liu (2010) conducted open-ended in-depth interviews with 25 high-school students in China and Norway. Findings showed that Chinese and Norwegian high school students differed in how they used the Internet in their lives. The Chinese used the Internet generally for fun and to escape their worlds, while the Norwegians employed the Internet as an everyday tool for diverse purposes, specifically for instrumental uses, such as seeking information and doing their homework, aside from socialization purposes (Liu, 2010, p.537).&nbsp.