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sector: home use |
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location: Sidcup, Kent |
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technology used: three PCs, on broadband for over 6 months |
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website: N/A |
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The Spencer family live in a semi detached, four-bedroom house in Sidcup, Kent. Mark (52) works as a science teacher at the local secondary school. Mary works at the local bank where she is organises charity events for the local community. Jason, (22) works as a sales rep in an electrical store. Alice (18)spends half the week with her fiancé and the other half at home. Alan (26) lives in his own flat. However, he is always in and out of the house. Their home has a relaxed family feel with a neatly-kept dinning room and amore relaxed and comfortable lounge where the family spend most of their time talking and watching TV. The typical weekday evening consists of Mark and Mary listening to music while they have a glass of wine. Later, Mark will spend a couple of hours on his PC preparing for his classes. There is a wide-screen TV in the lounge with a DVD player and Sky for the football. Mark calls the TV his 'entertainment system' or 'the family getaway'. |
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The PC, on the other hand, is his 'information centre without the thrills ands pills of the TV'. The house has three PCs but only one is connected to the internet. The main PC is placed in a small, narrow study at the front of the house. Two tables house the PC, printer and scanner. The family's first was a ZX80:'with 1K and tapes that never worked. It was one jump up from bloody ping pong on the telly. 'The most recent PC in the house was mainly 'built-up' by Mark. |
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Both Mark and Mary have a good knowledge of the internet. All 80 teachers at Mark's school are given a laptop and are being trained in internet use. Mary has also had training at work in different programmes for PC use. She has a good basic understanding of Office and Photoshop, and has little trouble in downloading or scanning images onto the PC. The internet and broadband have become a central feature in the Spencer household. Access is always available because the computer is always on during the day. It becomes a multi-purpose piece of household technology that allows for quick referencing to detailed research and serves leisure activates like gaming. |
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'Since we have had broadband we have been able to trace out family tree…We have always been interested in it but before we had broadband it took so bloody long for the search to happen…You know what, I found the other night that there is a hotel in Houston that is named after us.' Alice |
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Maybe the most family-orientated activity with the internet since broadband is that the whole family do their banking on the net.Mary has found that she is able to download images while 'getting the cooking on' or she is able to check her emails, while listening to a radio show through the internet and talking to her friends on the phone. On a more mundane level Jason describes why multitasking benefits his evening routine. |
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'Sometimes I like to check the Auto Trader site because I am well into my cars and I can quickly compare prices of cars and spare parts, but the other day I found myself quickly going upstairs to check on a MiniDisc that I was recording in my room, downstairs to quickly check on the TV for the Arsenal score, then upstairs again, then back to the Auto Trader site and then check on my Sky Dream team on their site…And life goes on.' |
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At one point during our visit, Jason is on the telephone sitting on the stairs in the hall way talking to his girlfriend while Mary and Mark are having a glass of wine in the kitchen talking about their day's work. Alice is checking her balance on the net when there is an expletive from Jason:'*!?*, the phone has gone dead again…I wish her mum would stop doing this. Every time I ring her up her mother goes upstairs to their computer and logs on, which then cuts of the bloody phone line... now I have to wait for her to log off.' This is something that the Spencer family no longer has to endure. |
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The family use Norton Viruscheck, which Mark felt was the best option for them following advice from his school . However, it is not the threat of viruses that concerns Mark and his family. Father,Mark feels that there is a deeper system of surveillance through broadband that will allow the government and the secret agencies to monitor an individual's movements. |
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'If you think that the normal phone line has five wires and broadband uses the fifth line, then think about it .What was the fifth line being used for before broadband used it? We have half a megabyte broadband connection coming down our phone line. That's 30-year-old technology in the 21st century. What's going on? In 1940-something Orwell wrote 1984.Well, how true is that?' |
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Overall, the Spencer family provide a snapshot of a broadband family. They use broadband, they enjoy it, they talk about it, and they use it in ways that make sense to them. |
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