Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Study Reports: More Internet Use = Less TV Watched
Posted by Jonathon Watkins in "OFF-TOPIC" @ 12:00 AM
The Digital Future Project of the University of Southern California has done a study which examines trends in Internet usage and folk’s attitude to the web. The new look ArsTechnica has gone through some of the figures and has posted about some of the conclusions of the study:
”Contrary to some beliefs about Internet users becoming increasingly isolated as it was assumed that they give up socializing to spend more time online, increased Internet usage actually comes at the expense of time spent in front of the boob tube. Those who have been online the longest end up watching less television than new users and nonusers. Internet users claim to spend the same amount of time with family and friends as they always have.”
Headline figures are that 75% of Americans go online regularly and just over 50 percent of Net users believe that "most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate", which is scarily high. Apparently most Net users also don’t believe that the Internet has any influence on the amount of time they spend with their family or Friends. Like the Arsians, I find that one hard to believe. Anyone else here need to be crowbarred off the computer (especially when all the X50v reviews hit the web)? ;-)
”Contrary to some beliefs about Internet users becoming increasingly isolated as it was assumed that they give up socializing to spend more time online, increased Internet usage actually comes at the expense of time spent in front of the boob tube. Those who have been online the longest end up watching less television than new users and nonusers. Internet users claim to spend the same amount of time with family and friends as they always have.”
Headline figures are that 75% of Americans go online regularly and just over 50 percent of Net users believe that "most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate", which is scarily high. Apparently most Net users also don’t believe that the Internet has any influence on the amount of time they spend with their family or Friends. Like the Arsians, I find that one hard to believe. Anyone else here need to be crowbarred off the computer (especially when all the X50v reviews hit the web)? ;-)
