&gt; the utility it offers the average user today is just a glorified photo album.<p>There are basically two kinds of Internet use that young people engage in -- hanging out with friends, and teaching themselves new skills.<p>The vast majority of young people though are mostly using the Internet to hang out with friends. The exception is apparently affluent white males, who have much higher rates of using the Internet to explore new ideas and teach themselves new skills. This is called the &#x27;participation gap.&#x27; (It&#x27;s perhaps also partly why, for example, there are more male entrepreneurs even though women do better in formal education.)<p>The important thing to note is that decisions about what to use the Internet for have a lot to do with who you are following in your social networks. E.g. this determines what new interests you&#x27;re likely to discover, what opportunities are made available to you, etc.<p>source: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Participatory-Culture-Networked-Era-Conversation&#x2F;dp&#x2F;0745660711" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.com&#x2F;Participatory-Culture-Networked-Era-Co...</a>