Ethnicity and the Internet Use of Barbadian and Franco-Ontarian Minority Young People

The Internet has been analysed as an instrument of cultural assimilation/homogenisation and as a means of promoting the maintenance of ethnic specificities. Considering examples of three types of minority ethnic communities (one Barbadian and two Franco-Ontarian) from a larger study, this paper examines patterns of Internet use by senior high school students in each, exploring this use as it relates to the students’ status as cultural minorities, and how they use the Internet to keep in touch with their geographically dispersed (diasporic) communities. The paper ends with an exploration of the role of sex and socio-economic status on patterns of Internet use and how these two dimensions could, individually or together, influence students’ status as cultural minorities and their use of the Internet to develop and/or maintain contacts with their geographically dispersed (diasporic) communities. Such Internet use may be indicative of their interest in the cultural specificity that is potentially associated with their minority status.