Influence of information technology on social spatial behaviors of urban residents — Case of Nanjing City in China

Taking Nanjing as a case, the paper explains the spatial behavior differences existing in the information technology use among different groups of residents and households, by virtue of analyzing the survey data of urban households in the 11 districts of Nanjing, from the social, spatial, life and other non-technical angles. Also it makes various analyses and evaluation quantitatively and qualitatively on the social and spatial effect of information technology. The results show that the new technology is changing the social spatial behaviors of urban residents. New behavioral spaces of urban family such as telecommuting, email and QQ have begun to emerge. With the help of Internet, the communication scope of families has expanded greatly, and more new forms of publicizing community information have begun to emerge. Telecommunication contact forms have been developing swiftly, and their frequencies of contact have been increasing dramatically.