Home as a communication hub: the domestic use of ICT

With the rapidly increasing ease of access to the Internet in people’s homes, more and more of our everyday activities are being carried out online. While the home has become what might be called a communication hub, open to question is the impact this virtual mobility is having on our physical mobility. The questions we address in this article concern the extent to which network communication is carried out in our homes and this in relation to (1) activities that demand transport, (2) those of us who utilize these options, and (3) the virtual and physical mobility/communication patterns. Data from a nationwide Norwegian sample are utilized in investigating these questions. The dataset comprises 2700 respondents with access to the Internet at home and who answered questions about daily travel and home-based use of information and communication technology (ICT) for purposes such as information-seeking, shopping, paid work, net-banking, chatting and playing games. The analysis indicates that while use of the Internet for many of these activities is common, it varies between groups. We discuss whether virtual activities have physical equivalents – physical twins - or whether these come in addition to previous equivalent activities. It is shown that the relation between virtual and physical mobility varies depending on type of activity and social group, but, overall, that is not very strong. One possible explanation is that many new ICT services and applications do not have as clear-cut functional equivalents – or physical twins – as many of the earlier ICT technologies had, and, if true, will make it increasingly difficult to track down the interplay between transport and communication.