‘You can’t talk at the library’: the leisure divide and public internet access for people experiencing homelessness

Abstract

Members of disadvantaged communities are likely to value public internet access for leisure and socializing in addition to internet uses more traditionally recognized as beneficial to socioeconomic capital. To date, little research exists to examine how people in poverty manage their leisure uses of the internet and to what effect on their wellbeing. This study draws on three years of ethnographic fieldwork with unstably housed adults seeking public computer access in northside Chicago. Observations and interviews were conducted at a public library and nonprofit agency where participants relied on public computers partially or fully for internet access. Participants valued public internet access for passing time off the street through entertainment and social media, in addition to more instrumental uses. They frequently translated online leisure activities into social interactions with those around them at access sites, helping facilitate important social bonds by watching videos together, singing along to music, and discussing online content together. The policies and settings of each access site differently enabled the social benefits of digital leisure. The findings contribute to digital inequality research on the leisure divide by illustrating the outcomes for social wellbeing and the importance of local insitutions in shaping leisure uses and outcomes. The value that disadvantaged internet users place on digital leisure and its potential social benefits calls for a reconsideration of how activities are prioritized in inclusion scholarship and efforts.