A Study of Factors Involved in Internet-Use among the Youth:An Analysis of the Survey Results from the Province of Charmahal and Bakhtiari

The main objective of this paper is to provide knowledge about the tendency of the youth in one of the remote provinces of Iran (Charmahal va Bakhtiari) regarding new media use with a special reference to their tendency towards internet use. This analysis will also engage in a causal analysis of the factors involved in explanation of this tendency. The results of this paper comes from a survey research project that was launched in 1385-1386 Iranian Calendar (2006-2007) regarding internet use among the young population of the province. The statistical population of this research includes the young population of the province provided their age falls between the range of 15 to 25 and that their place of residence is located in urban centers and who internet users were at the time of this study. The sample size based on a random sampling method amounted to 381. The primary results indicate that various objectives drives the Charmahali youth to use internet and that structural and no-structural factors are involved to drive the Charmahali youth to use internet. This type of knowledge has several contributions including adding up to the previous knowledge on patterns of internet use in Iran. Most importantly the results contribute to regional planning regarding organizing leisure time for the province’s young population and how their needs towards using new media should be met.