TABLE 3—
Purposes for Which Information Technologies Were Used by Homeless Persons
| Type of Technology and Reference | Sample Size | Respondents and Setting | Methods (Response Rate) | Purposes for Which Respondents Were Using Technology (%) |
| Mobile phone | ||||
| Eyrich-Garg27,ab | 100 | Unsheltered men and women in Philadelphia, PA | Survey (98%) | Connect with family (70%) |
| Connect with friends (34%) | ||||
| Sense of safety (for health and crime-related emergencies, etc.; 32%) | ||||
| Employment (seeking, checking on hours, receive call from boss, etc.; 23%) | ||||
| Connect with helping professionals (case worker, physician, etc.; 16%) | ||||
| Other: seek stable housing, to help stay clean of drugs (percentage not provided) | ||||
| (Percentages are based on the 44 mobile phone users.) | ||||
| Le Dantec and Edwards30 | 13 | Homeless adults from outreach centers (location not reported) | Qualitative interviews including photoelicitation techniques40 | Keep in touch with friends and family |
| Identity management tool (i.e., a sign of social status) | ||||
| (No percentages reported.) | ||||
| Rice et al.36,c | 169 | Homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA | Survey (NA) | Talk to friends or associates from home (50.9%) |
| Talk to siblings, cousins, or other family members (42.6%) | ||||
| Talk to parents (41.4%) | ||||
| Talk to friends or associates from the streets (37.9%) | ||||
| Talk to potential employers (24.3%) | ||||
| Talk to friends or associates met online (23.1%) | ||||
| Talk to case workers, social workers, or staff at youth agencies (17.2%) | ||||
| Talk to current employers (11.8%) | ||||
| Computer, Internet, and e-mail | ||||
| Eyrich-Garg28,b | 100 | Unsheltered men and women in Philadelphia, PA | Survey (NA) | Business purposes (searching information on employment, affordable housing, medical conditions, etc.; 94%) |
| Leisure (surfing the Internet, playing games, listening to music, watching videos, etc.; 77%) | ||||
| E-mail friends and family (45%) | ||||
| Use social networking Web sites (15%) | ||||
| Word processing (15%) | ||||
| E-mail for leisure purposes (11%) | ||||
| (Percentages are based on the 47 respondents who had used a computer in the past 30 d) | ||||
| Miller et al.31 | 7 | Homeless men who just completed a shelter work readiness program in Philadelphia, PA | Qualitative interviews | Build life skills (i.e., managing stress and time, doing Internet research, organizing personal documents, writing résumés) |
| Leisure gaming | ||||
| Develop a business | ||||
| Personal budgeting | ||||
| (No percentages reported.) | ||||
| Rice et al.38,d | 201 | Homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA | Survey (NA) | Use e-mail to communicate with friends or associates from home (44.8%), friends or associates from the streets (36.8%), nonparental family members (36.3%), friends or associates met online (34.8%), and parents (30.9%) |
| Use social networking Web sites to communicate with friends or associates from home (59.7%), friends or associates met online (42.8%); nonparental family members (42.3%); friends or associates from the streets (40.8%); and parents (18.9%) | ||||
| Seek sex partner onlinee (25.4%) | ||||
| (Percentages are based on the 194 Internet users) | ||||
| Barman-Adhikari and Rice25,c | 169 | Homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA | Survey (NA) | Receive forwarded health information (75.4%) |
| Connect with home-based peers (66.4%) | ||||
| Look online for general health information (61.0%) | ||||
| Connect with street-based peers (52.7%) | ||||
| Connect with online peers (47.9%) | ||||
| Look online for information on HIV and sexually transmitted infection (47.3%) | ||||
| Look online for sex-related information (40.7%) | ||||
| Connect with parents (34.1%) | ||||
| Talk about sex in online social networks (27.5%) | ||||
| Look online for HIV testing information (23.3%) | ||||
| Moser32 | 13f | Homeless and nonhomeless users of computers installed in homeless shelters in Calgary, Alberta | Qualitative interviews | Pass time during the day |
| E-mail to keep in touch with friends and family | ||||
| Mitigate the social stigma of being homeless | ||||
| Surf the Internet | ||||
| Listen to music | ||||
| Look for jobs | ||||
| Develop a personal business | ||||
| Obtain education | ||||
| Word processing | ||||
| (No percentages reported.) | ||||
| Social networking technologiesg | ||||
| Rice et al.37,h | 136 | Homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA | Survey (91%) | Keep in touch with homeless peers (100%), home-based peers (74%), parents (50%), and case workers (44%) |
| Young and Rice39,d | 201 | Homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA | Survey (NA) | Used social networking Web sites (percentages based on n = 175 respondents): MySpace (78.1%), Facebook (29.9%), and Twitter (10.0%) |
| Communicate with friends online about (percentages based on 175 respondents): love and relationships (45.8%); videos (30.9%); drinking, drugs, or partying (30.4%); sex (27.9%); school (27.9%); being homeless (20.9%); and safe sex (6.0%). | ||||
| Use social network sites to find sex partners (22.8%; percentages based on 136 respondents) | ||||
| Rice et al.35,h | 136 | Homeless adolescents in Hollywood, CA | Survey (91%) | Connect via social networking technologies to home-based peers (mean = 1.54; SD = 2.21), home-based friends (mean = 0.59; SD = 1.22), street-based peers (mean = 0.57; SD = 1.15), and street-based friends (mean = 0.38; SD = 0.89)i |
| Rice34 | 103 | Sexually active homeless adolescents in Los Angeles, CA | Survey (NA) | Use of social networking technologies (Internet, texting, phone) to interact with home-based peers reported by “slightly more than half” of the sample. |
Note. NA = not available.
a
In this study, mobile phone use included calling and texting.
b
These 2 articles reported data from the same participants but are described in separate rows because each emphasizes a different technology.
c
These 2 articles reported data from the same participants but are described in separate rows because each emphasizes a different technology.
d
These 2 articles reported data from the same participants but are described in separate rows because each emphasizes a different technology.
e
This was based on a question that did not differentiate between e-mail and social network sites; it read, “Have you ever used the Internet to find someone to have sex with?”
f
Complete study sample was 42 but only 13 of these were homeless persons. The remainder were staff and other key informants.
g
Social networking technologies refers to Internet, mobile phones, and texting.
h
These 2 articles reported data from the same participants but are described in separate rows because each emphasizes a different technology.
i
The means refer to the number of contacts of a given type in the electronic social network.