Tool, toy, telephone, territory, trade, or treasure of information: a cross-sectional study of Taiwanese students' attitudes toward the Internet

Abstract

The purposes of this study are to investigate different levels of Taiwan students' attitudes toward the Internet according to a 6-T model, and to understand possible factors associated with differences among these attitudes. This study adopts a cross-sectional design to collect data from 1,700 surveys completed by Taiwanese fifth graders, eighth graders, 11 th graders, and college sophomores. Through a confirmatory factor analysis, this study validates the 6-T model and shows that it can help explain the six factors -Tool, Toy, Telephone, Territory, Trade, and Treasure of information -that are critical to Internet attitudes. This study found that the Tool and Toy factors yield the greatest recognition among Taiwan students, while the Trade factor seems to yield the least recognition among all grade groups. The results also indicate that as students grow older, they have increasingly positive attitudes toward the Internet. In addition, students' motivation to use the Internet and their weekend time-on-Internet can predict their attitudes toward the Internet. Implications of these results are also discussed.

Privacy perception and information technology utilization of high school students

“…To measure high school students' Internet attitudes, Taiwanese researchers (Chou et al., 2013; Tsai et al., 2001) developed a 6-T -model of Internet attitudes that represent that teens perceived Internet as a Tool for information acquisition, a Toy for pleasure and gaming, a Telephone for communication, a Territory for self-expression, a Treasure of Information and a Trade for selling and buying online. Ozcan and Buzlu (2007) used the Online Cognitive Scale to measure problematic Internet use; the scale includes four dimensions: loneliness/depression, diminished impulse control, distraction and social comfort.…”