Relationships between information seeking and context: A qualitative study of Internet searching and the goals of personal development

Little research has explored how exactly information processes relate to their context. Context is defined as all those things which are not an inherent part of information phenomena, but which nevertheless bear some relation to these. This article addresses the issue by discussing empirical findings from a study on Internet searching and personal development. The purpose of the article is to construct a general typology for researching the links between information seeking and its context. Grounded analysis of the whole corpus revealed 11 different relationships between Internet searching and the goals of personal development. Because these seem to be quite generalizable to information seeking in other contexts (e.g., parenting or location), too, they were then abstracted into four generic relationships: detachment, unity, direction, and interaction. The classifications are offered as tools for understanding information seeking more contextually and for conducting further research in this area.