Investigating the Potential Influence of the Internet as a New Socialization Agent in Context with Other Traditional Socialization Agents

To explore how marketing practices should be adapted to today's technology-driven culture, this study investigated the differences in the socialization of gender and two generational cohorts, using the established agents of parents, peers, and traditional mass media, in conjunction with the Internet as a potentially new and important socialization agent. The findings suggest that normative (parents, peers, and the Internet) influences affect Generation Y more than Generation X. Conversely, as this study found, informative influences of parents, traditional media, and in particular, the Internet affect Generation X. Furthermore, the findings show that the Internet is an important normative socialization agent influencing men, while it acts as an informative socialization agent for women.