tags: internet, Pew Research Center, poll
The Pew Research Center conducted a survey of 4,001 adults and found that half of them only use the internet occasionally, and even many avid Internet users surf the Web in the same way they did 10 years ago. Yeowza, not me!
"We were struck by a couple of things in the survey," says Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Here's the list;
- 49 percent are not weaving Internet use into their daily life. These include people who don't check their e-mail every day -- or aren't online at all
- 20 percent are middle-of-the-road tech users, many of whom find connectivity to be intrusive
- 8 percent of respondents are "omnivores,"; people who express themselves creatively online -- whether by blogging, uploading homemade videos or helping others build Web sites
- 8 percent are "lackluster veterans," who use technology but the thrill is gone. They are content to surf the 'Net and send e-mails, but show little interest in using the Web to express themselves or in adopting mobile media
- 8 percent are "productivity enhancers," who mostly use technology to keep up with their jobs and day-to-day life. For them, the blogosphere is just not important
- 7 percent are "connectors," who see the Internet and cell phones as communication tools and might use their gadgets more if they were easier to use
According to these definitions, what are you? And if any of you claim you are not using the Internet at all, I reserve the right to have all my readers dogpile on top of you.
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If I don't have a net connection I go through withdrawal symptoms. I use the net so much differently than I did fifteen years ago. Now I create videos, blog, chat, but most importantly watch TV.
Love your blog! I'm an omnivore, too.
I'm a little bothered by the "omnivore" designation.
They're talking about people who make some sort of contribution to the development of the internet and they're using a word implying "consumer"...
Not only do I use the internet more or less the same way I did 10 years ago, I primarily use a machine that was originally sold in the late 1990s - the bios is copyright 1997. (The memory, hard drives, and monitor are newer - purchased variously between 2000 and 2004.)
I dislike almost anything that adds sound or animation to a web page - so I seldom browse with flash or other video capable plugins, and I adblock everything that wiggles.
I've never heard of this "internet". Can you tell me anything about it?
Those interwebs are nothing but trouble! I stay away altogether!
Naw, just kidding, I guess I'm an "omnivore" too, which seems like a weird way to describe it. I just have a blog, I don't eat everything on the web.
e-mail, read some blogs & news sites, that's about it.
The e-mail is really useful and I wonder how I ever survived without it (yes, there was a time during the Quaternary period when e-mail didn't exist; strange as this sounds).
This is strange as my PC at home (and my laptop to a lesser extent) has all the whizz bang, gee whizz stuff but I don't switch that stuff on, don't play games on my PC or online. Far too easy to become addicted to this internet thingy.
Only bought a mobile phone because my company paid for it (safety concerns) and that was only 3 years ago.
Still sketch using pencil & paper.
Never had a blog and no desire to have one, especially given the quality of some existing blogs.
So "lackluster veteran" and a bit of "connector".
One of my co-workers was talking about one of his relatives doing a two-week 'technology fast'. No TV, computers, etc. outside of the necessity for work.
I asked if a hangman's noose was allowed. :)