Interview Responses

#1 - Carlie
Age: 24
Major: International Affairs

1. I grew up in Durango, CO
2. I grew up with both my parents, and a younger sister
3. Only my dad went to college
4. He studied sociology
5. My earliest memory of using a computer was in the 1st grade, but I may have been introduced to them earlier
6. I started using a computer regularly in 3rd grade
7. I do almost everything it is possible to do online. My main activities include shopping, staying connected with friends, finding roommates and apartments, doing research, downloading TV shows and movies, reading and keeping a blog.
8. My internet use has changed over time. In high school, I mostly chatted and played games. Now, I use the internet for many more practical things and spend less time just goofing around.
9. Both of my parents were involved in the computer industry, so they kept tabs on my use, but never restricted it except as punishment for bad grades or other times that I got in trouble.
10. Since they didn't restrict my use, I was always allowed to do what I wanted online, so their attitudes didn't influence my use at all.
11. Their attitudes haven't changed, they still don't restrict my access.
12. They no longer have any control over my internet usage because I am an adult.


#2 Elly
Age: 25
Major: Undergraduate - Italian/ Graduate - Architecture

1. I grew up in Durango, CO
2. I grew up with my parents, an older brother, and a younger brother
3. Yes, both my parents went to college
4. My mom studied liberal arts, and my dad studied economics
5. I was first introduced to a computer in 1st grade
6. I started using a computer regularly in 5th grade
7. I do almost everything it is possible to do online, but most of my time is spent shopping, doing research, reading webcomics, playing games, chatting, and running an online business
8. Yes, my internet use has changed. In high school, I spent most of my time chatting, emailing, and designing web pages. Now my interests have branched out and become more practical.
9. My parents thought I was a genius with computers, so they pretty much let me do whatever I liked, but they were very paranoid about releasing personal information online, so they always made sure I knew not to ever give out any personal information to anyone over the internet.
10. This attitude made me very paranoid about giving out any of my personal information, so it was many years before I even used my real name in any fashion online. I also never visited shopping websites or other sites that asked for any personal information.
11. As time has gone on, my parents became much less paranoid about the personal information angle.
12. They loosened up about it after seeing their children do many things online, go shopping, and meet people without ever having their information stolen or meeting anyone dangerous, which convinced them that it was not as big a deal as they had thought it was.


#3 Vinnie
Age: 23
Major: Clinical Psychology

1. I grew up in Ellsworth, Maine
2. I grew up with my mom, and a brother and sister
3. My dad went to college
4. He studied accounting and finance
5. I was first introduced to a computer at the age of 5 or 6
6. I started using a computer regularly when I was about 5 or 6
7. I do everything online, though my primary interests are email, RPGs, pictures, tv shows, and reading
8. I have always done as much as I possibly can online, but what I can do online has changed over time as the technology and the content of internet websites has changed. I have always tried to follow the advancing trends in internet usage
9. My whole family shared one computer, so our use was always visible to my mom, but we were only distantly monitored, with no hard and fast rules or restrictions.
10. The lack of restrictions gave us the freedom to explore, with no desire to do anything that would cause rules to be put in place. For example, one unspoken rule was no downloading porn, which we never did because it was something that we knew would be noticed and cause restrictions to be put in place.
11. My mom's attitude hasn't really changed because she was so open about it to begin with.
12. Her attitudes haven't changed because I never gave her any reason not to trust me, and I'm an adult now, so she doesn't control my access at all any more.


#4 Joe
Age: 25
Major: Computer Science

1. I grew up in Pueblo, CO
2. I grew up with my mom, dad, and younger brother
3. Yes, both my parents went to college
4. My mom studied nursing, and my dad studied English and automotive mechanics
5. I was first introduced to computers in elementary school, in 2nd or 3rd grade
6. I got my first home computer in 1992, when I was about 10
7. I use the internet for work, shopping, gaming, personal information management, reading, research, social bookmarking, banking, streaming music, downloading music and videos, among other things
8. Yes, what I do online has changed over time. I do more now because there is more to do - speeds are faster with broadband when I used to have dial-up. I started out on the original bulletin board system before the internet became what it is today, and I have changed my usage habits as it has changed
9. My parents pretty much let me have free reign over my computer use because they didn't know enough about the computer to make any specific rules regarding my use and habits
10. Since I had no restrictions, I always did pretty much what I wanted online
11. My parents know more about computers now, but their attitudes about use haven't changed
12. They haven't changed their attitudes because their computer knowledge grew as I matured and their trust of me grew as well, so they never saw any need to restrict me even as they learned more about what I did. Also, now that I am an adult, they have no say over my computer use.