Online Networking as a Growing Multimodal and Multipurpose Media Practice: a Key Factor for Socio-Cultural Change Carlos Tabernero, Jordi Sánchez-Navarro, Daniel Aranda & Imma Tubella Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3) & Information and Communication Science Studies Open University of Catalonia (UOC) Introduction In the network society, our lives are arranged, more than ever, around communication. Among other aspects, information and communication technologies have opened the door to citizens’ direct participation. As a result, ICTs, particularly the Internet as well as the explosion of global mobile communication, have brought about a new turn regarding the rules under which mass communication has been run to date. Thus, considering communication practices, and media within them, as key elements in the building of social and cultural features, we argue that these technologies and their applications are predictably becoming basic instruments of socio- cultural change. We are trying to understand current patterns of transformation in communication practices owing to the increasing incorporation of the Internet in people’s everyday lives. To begin with, there is every indication that the rise of Internet access in the household environment plays a fundamental role in the development of this new framework for mass communication. In this context, a dynamic relationship between distinct social, technological and human communication factors takes place. Notwithstanding system and social factors, which provide the necessary social, political and economic structure for the diffusion of communication technology, our research is primarily concerned with audience, technology and use factors. These primarily revolve around the interconnection between people’s perception, comprehension, evaluation and adoption of communication technology according to their individual needs, beliefs and attitudes, and in terms of the perceived balance between expectations and gratifications in the use of any particular technology. The different uses and functions with which people individually and collectively make use of the Internet bring about decisive modifications in the quantity and quality of people’s involvement in communication processes. In addition to the overall increase of Internet uptake, there is a noticeable growth in the intensity of its use, measured by frequency and the total time of connection, which has been widely associated to at least two aspects inherent to its rising diffusion: first, the mounting prevalence of home access; and second, the higher levels of user experience, according to the amount of time users have been online, which obviously grows in relation to the increasing ratios of overall access. This is of particular importance among the young, as regards precisely the spreading of home Internet access, which implies the adoption of the Internet at increasingly earlier ages. In this sense, the Internet gradually becomes a constitutive element, and no longer a novelty, for the younger generations, as it happened with television for various generations of the second half of the 20 th century. Furthermore, the growth of broadband connections, the rising degree of mobility and ubiquity of access, and the ever-renewing range of services and applications available bring about not only the increase of intensity of use, but also a remarkable broadening of practices among users. These may range from the opening out of innovative ways for multi-faceted interpersonal communication and for the search and consumption of content and information of all sorts, to a noteworthy expansion of individual multimodal and multipurpose content creation, production and distribution practices. Taken together, these practices are relevant in relation to the emergence of a participatory culture within which the management of information and knowledge is constantly adjusted by technology and media users according to their own personal and communal interests. We certainly know that the gradual intensification of the use of the Internet is bringing about changes related to the mounting range of possibilities for individuals’ contribution in a broad spectrum of technology-supported communication processes, yet we do not know how these transformations are taking place. Therefore, we confirm the growing necessity to further and thoroughly explore Internet usage from the standpoint of its bearing on users’ daily lives. 1