Highlights

Introduction

This scientific literature contains many reports of studies concerning Internet use by young people, but there are few studies grouping Internet users according to styles of using it. This article is aimed at extracting models of Internet use by young people, and establishing whether these models are connected with their social capital.

Method

The empirical data come from the sociological quality study carried out among students from 294 municipalities in Poland (N = 8350), in the period from October 1, 2018 to January 12, 2019. The models of using the Internet by youth were established on the basis of factor analysis with the use of the main components method. The analysis of multiple linear regression several times was used for establishing whether the Internet use models are connected with the student’s social capital.

Results

Three models of using the Internet were distinguished: active online, passive online and Internet gamer. These models are significantly connected with students’ personal social capital, and the family’s economic capital.

Conclusions

It was demonstrated that the Polish youth most frequently spend time on the Internet contacting friends, following You Tube channels, listening to music, as well as passively scrolling through social networks. The study allowed for distinguishing models of using the Interned with a significant specificity of functioning. It was demonstrated that the active online model concerns the older respondents who are financially supported by their families. The gamer online model more frequently concerns boys rather than girls. Such variables as gender, financial support from parents or guardians, as well as the grade (form) level turned out to be significant predictors for the distinguished models.