Theories

Uses and gratifications model of mass communication: 

• individuals utilize the Internet to their specific wants and needs - like Amazon.com. An individual logs onto Amazon.com to buy a specific product, more often than not. 
• “The motivations of Internet users are…not monolithic,” as stated by J. Baumgartner & J. Morris (2010). Instead individuals seek out information, buy products, to express opinions and develop relationships through various social media networks.  

Knowledge Gap Hypothesis: 

• technology has become more readily available and accessible to the general population, thus researchers have become to speculate discrepancies in internet use may be due to “skill gaps and not access inequalities” (S. Robertson et al., 2010).