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Internet Plays A Large Role For U.S. Citizens
Homework Help writes "The latest U.S. Census Bureau report suggests that the Internet has become an integral part of the American lifestyle and economy." From the article: "It shows 40 percent of U.S. adults used the Web to obtain news, weather or sports information, a dramatic increase from the 7 percent who surfed in 1997, when the bureau conducted a similar study. The report also found that nearly half of adults, 47 percent, used the Internet to find information on products or services. About one-third reported purchasing a product or service online, compared with only 2 percent who did so in 1997."
TV also popular.
Radio popular, but not as popular as it was in the 1930s.
NFL football quite popular as a spectator sport.
What the hell? The last time they conducted a simular study was 1997? 96-97 was when the Internet really started to take off. How can they expect to show any kind of useful information if they don't do a study like that every year or every other year. Its like saying that in 1905 only 7% of people used cars and now in 2005 99% of people use them, so cars play a big role in people's lives.
I thought our government was gathering more useful statistics, but I guess not.
And she totally disagrees. She's gonna go post about it on her livejournal, then I'll submit it to Slashdot.
I'd like to see how this compares with other developed countries, especially ones in which broadband penetration is much higher, like in South Korea, Japan, most of Scandinavia, and to a bit less extent, most of Western Europe. If the US has 40%, what nation probably has the highest percentage? Sweden?
Take off every sig. For great justice.
Can someone tell me where I can get a copy of this internet thing? I don't wanna be left out...
Be a real patriot: Question authority. Think for yourself. Formulate your own conclusions.
t shows 40 percent of U.S. adults used the Web to obtain news, weather or sports information, a dramatic increase from the 7 percent who surfed in 1997, when the bureau conducted a similar study. The report also found that nearly half of adults, 47 percent, used the Internet to find information on products or services. About one-third reported purchasing a product or service online, compared with only 2 percent who did so in 1997
when it says a third reported purchasing products or services online compared to 2%, is that a third of internet users? or a third of people surveyed? 2% just happens to be almost a third of 7% i noticed.... probably irrelevant though...
Does anybody make (or buy) maps of small towns anymore?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
I got the pages from the 1930 census - the first one my father was on - there is a category for whether they had a radio in the house or not. He didn't but the Camarco family next door did. Yes, I teased him about it.
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
that 80 percent of U.S. adults used the Web to obtain porn.
As an administrator for a large ISP, I can see who's really downloading the porn.
The most popular newsgroup? alt.binaries.pictures.erotica.teen.female.
The actual report can be found here (PDF warning).
SIG: TAKE OFF EVERY 'CAPTAIN'!!
Could the same not be said about any emerging technology? I bet it took things like television, cars, and telephones a few years to gain traction in the American household, but thereafter became an integral part of our lifestyle. I don't see why anyone would think the Internet would be any different.
Socialism: A feeling of discontent and resentment caused by a desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
40 percent of U.S. adults used the Web to obtain news ...
Why not? It's free and if your the green peace type, it doesn't use paper! The best part about it is, you don't have to wait til tomorrow to find out whether or not your ATI or NVIDA stock just hit rock bottom due to some GPU meltdown.
I'm actually surprised that it's only 40 percent when you consider the benefits...
Tell me more about these mystical creatures who don't spend their time on the internet, and who still play that game called "First Life"... Do they ride unicorns? Do they know Santa Claus?
Intelligent Design: because MATH is HARD.
I'm too lazy to find related /. article, it was a few weeks ago, some of you may remember. USA has fallen from 4th (previous year) to 16th (this year) place among countries that have broadband internet.
So USA is not using internet that much in fact. Another PR stunt just on time when EU wants to takeover.
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#\ @ ? Colonize Mars
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The internet plays a large role in every US citizen's life. Virtually every bank, insurance company, restaurant, factory, school or other organization relies on the the net in one form or another to function productively (or function at all in some cases). Just because not everyone making use of those pieces of our culture and economy directly use the web doesn't mean that they're un-impacted by the internet.
To the extent that we have all sorts of just-in-time deliveries to factories, package tracking, widely accessible databases, and all sorts of other efficiency-enabling goodies that rely on internetworking, the thrust of the summary sells it very short. Sure, web/e-mail/IM use by individuals is way, way up from 5 or 10 years ago - but the country's use of the internet, down at the economic and government plumbing level, affects everyone, and in ways that most people don't appreciate until it breaks.
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
In 2004, 39.5 million U.S. households shopped online, Forrester said, 3.5 million more than in 2003. The company predicts broadband, laptop and home networking adoption will help drive online research and purchasing to more than 55 million households by 2010.
Well, it depends on how much the bandwidth charges cost. In their equation, bandwidth is the only thing that isn't going down in price. Home networking gear, laptops, mobile devices with wireless/GPRS, etc, are all falling rapidly. It's the network connection fees that are prohibitive.
They are claiming that a huge percentage of households will have broadband available to them by 2010 but how many will be able to afford it with restrictions such as required CATV, local phone service, etc? Yeah, the actual Internet connection seems inexpensive until you realize that you have to bundle it w/the other services to get a reasonable rate.
That's what needs to be ended before broadband adoption skyrockets.
You think I'm kidding, but I'm not.
Now if only our Victorian era legal system could be dragged into the 21st century...
and what about the people who can't afford internet access? Should we just forget about them? They don't count? This article should be a clarion call that we need to be doing more to help minorities break the digital divide so they can get good jobs.
Rank my idea: http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/node/531
And a lot of people are using the Internet? Woah, what was that? I think I just saw Captain Obvious fly by!
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
Seriously, the Internet makes it almost too easy to access information. If I want pizza, I go online and order it. If I want a movie, I go online and order it. To submit homework, I go online to submit it. To get a job, I email applications and lookup company profiles on the internet. I guess the Internet is the new opiate for the masses.
I am d3matt
The average person spends about nine hours a day using some type of media, which is arguably in excess of anything we would have envisioned 10 years ago. It includes television, books, magazines, cell phones, the Internet, instant messaging, e-mail and radio ... full report is here
The important thing is not to stop questioning --Albert Einstein.
Be sure to remember the Programmers Prayer
That's very true about the internet not being limited to what we personally use in our homes, but I think an important thing to note here is that just-in-time is not unique to the internet. It's not even unique to long-distance communications. [rant] People have always wanted to minimize storage time. Then some people started focusing on it and it had a better return than improving in other areas. Then some genius decided that "hey, I've invented a new concept: just-in-time manufacturing and delivery!" But there's no real invention... it's just improving on existing methods. It's not like one day people realized that storage time imposes real costs. It's in no way a novel idea. It's like if I invented a new manufacturing paradigm called high-quality-manufacturing where I try to give customers the best product.[/rant]
Not that you carry any of these assumptions, it just needed to be said.
Rank my idea: http://www.sinceslicedbread.com/node/531
Air has been found to be important.
Seriously, slow Friday?
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And yet we're still way behind in adopting broadband compared to other countries.
"I reject your reality, and substitute my own!"
DDDUUUUUHHHHHHHH!
WTF is the internet?
Forrester Research, for example, predicted in August that broadband Internet access alone will more than double this decade, reaching 71 million U.S. households in 2010.
This seems pretty conservative. With technologies like Wi-Max and Wi-Fi, and google rolling this out for free, I would imagine that almost everyone would have broadband access by 2010.
No Sigs!
And how many of those want "a better internet?"
And how many of those think that the internet is AOL?
Finally, on a serious note how many here preferred the BBS era? And how many still are dreading running 32 nodes into their house?
Thanks for all the fish, I'll stick with PCBoard, Wildcat, and my Blue Box *tells sister not to pickup phone*
You mean like this newsflash
Could anyone imagine not using the internet? It has been a way of life. Although it has been very beneficial, I think it has increased the speed in our lifestyles because information is so readily available.
[%] Cingular Ringtones
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Now whether that means that it will fall on the libraries to have public terminals (and if so, they need to be subsidized, otherwise they're bearing the brunt) or that the government puts up Internet cafes (without the cafe part), that's up to the government. But when the government saves money or streamlines operations to put things on the Internet, then the government best make sure that everyone has access. The word disenfranchise comes to mind, but that's for suffrage. But the effect is somewhat the same, almost equivalent to the old poll taxes.
I'm somewhat surprised that not too many people haven't already been squawking about this. But the poor frequently don't have a loud enough voice.
Is this thing on? Hello?
Well I for one have never used the internet and don't plan to anytime soon.
Increasing importance of the internet to the average person is, in many respects, a good thing. It means a growing market, which attracts money, which drives innovation forward and prices downward (yes, you can argue that broadband is overpriced, but consider what you bay per Mbit down today as compared to what you would have paid per Mbit down 10 years ago). This is true for anything, of course, but it's more true for the internet: many of the advantages that can be provided by connectivity become more effective in more than direct proportion to the number of people connected.
/.ers), it's also bad. The more popular something becomes and the more money that's involved, the more heavily regulated it will be (by both governments and private organizations...Microsoft's position in re: desktop computing may not technically be regulatory, but it amounts to much the same thing), not to mention the more commercialized it becomes. To use a comparison that's been done to death already, it's the wild West all over again. Enough people move out west, and the freedoms/culture that made it initially attractive vanish.
/. Not that I'm a 5-digit UID, or anything, but even I remember a much different site. I won't make any claims that it was objectively better or worse, but it was better from my POV before there was a need for meta-moderation, before editorials started getting so slammed in comments that they went away, so on and so forth.
However, for people like myself (and probably a lot of
You can even see this, in microcosm, with
*shrug*
So the question is, where to next?
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
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In terms of culture and society we have the Internet as a "Melting pot" of sorts.
In terms of Sci-Fi we are all becoming "assimilated". What I mean here is... Have you ever watched your friends playing video games and noticed the total picture of concentration on that television? Well, same goes for sitting at the computer. We all sit and stare at a screen, type and sometimes move the mouse. (in my mind's eye this is a little weird even though I spend 95% of my time on a computer)
IMHO I really hope that we don't become too dependent on the Internet. I mean, what happens when the lines of communication go down?
Maybe it's just me, but 40% don't make it an "integral part" of the "American lifestyle" IMO. Outside of the fact that "America" is a bit bigger than you might think, anyway (what you probably mean is "US-American lifestyle"), 40%, well, just isn't that much, even if it's considerably more than in 1997. Once you go beyond 90%, we can start to talk about whether it's an "integral part".
quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur.
NOW we are in a "dot-boom". But we can't get much development capital, because of the "dot-bust". Triggered in part by that 2% figure.
Bizzare. The hype was accurate (30% of people will now buy stuff on the Internet), riches are to be made, but you can't do it anymore.
Ratboy.
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
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Well said, a govt. census is supposed to be about collecting mundane statistics for use in the public domain (eg: how big a shit pipe will we need in 10 years time for suburb X if current trends continue). It has nothing to do with "spectacular revelations".
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
"It will be a great day when I can make a comment on slashdot without one person dissecting information in it."
It would also be quite an occasion to see someone admit they didn't think something through before posting.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
We had a snow storm this week and the cable(I have cable boradband) was out for 3 day's. I don't know if I could have survived much longer with out my internet. I wasn't realy woried though until the convulsions started.
The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum. - O'Toole's Corollary
The Internet plays a large role for US Citizens? Well, their government is doing a p*ss-poor job of developing the infrastructure. They are 10 years behind Japan and Korea in terms of the Internet.
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From my own personal anecdotal research, I think many people still don't use the internet, or use it very little. Cell phones and text messaging seem to me to be used more.
When I try to talk about the web/internet with many people I still get the glazed eye response. Sure, they use it occasionally and surf for "the basics", it seems to me many people are either technically daunted by browsers and the internet, or scared from the fear of pr0n/hax0rz.
This isn't just a generational thing, from my perspective. I've been using computers since the late 80's, and I still run into Gen Z'ers who know very little about the web/computers.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
If a new episode of Rome or Deadwood is one, don't even think about taking my teevee!
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
"And honestly it does not take long before you can easily justify the 30-50$ a month (I probably save that much JUST from the comparison shopping/rebate searches I can do online). "
By downloading movies, music, games, and books one can easily justify the Internet fees.
Anyway there's one nation that seems to be left off these "penetration" studies. A nation that's closer to the US in geography and population. That would be Russia.
Unfortunately people are forgetting all the alternative ways of electronic communication that have NOTHING to do with the internet, except maybe using some of the protocols.
Look up on the roof of some businesses sometimes. Those are VSATs. Also a lot of businesses used leased lines who's only connection with the internet is that they both go through the same company. There are even those using line-of-sight microwave dishes.
These guys are doing a heckuva job!
My parents got a broadband connection and rang me up.... "hey, we just got the Internet on our desktop today! All I have to do is click the blue 'E'." To which I replied, "The whole internet? How'd they fit all that on your desktop? That's amazing, Ma. Simply amazing."
401 - Attention span not found
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Wait, wait, hold up.
What's paper? Is it like a text viewer?
The actual study was on internet usage by US residents - US households - not merely by citizens. They did break out ethnic groups - e.g. use in Asian households is higher than all other groups - but that includes both American and non-American families.
The job of the Census is to count the people, nothing more, nothing less. This lame ass "survey" crap has got to stop.
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WITH factiods to help them on their way!
Automobiles Play Large Role in American Life - The planning and layout of American cities has caused the AUTOMOBILE (sometimes also konwn as a "car") to pllay a large role in American life. Rich people drive better cars than poor people, and are less likely to take the bus from the suburbs to their jobs.
People are Getting Older - Studies are comfirming that from the moment Americans are born, they continue to age without any slowing of getting older as time passes. marketers have taken to calling this segment of the population "Agers," and see them as a vastly untapped market. New Marketing initiatives are directed at placing small LCD advertising screens in individual Hospital incubators.
In Las Vegas, Lots of People Gamble! - Studies have found that many people that travel to Las Vegas are spending their disposable income on the pasttime of gambling. Wealthier peoplpe tend to spend more money on gambling, and do it more often that poorer people. Officals released the following statement, "Its really, really interesting. We're totally flummoxed by this unexpected data."
Wealthier Americans Have More Money - US Census reports show that the 50% of the people that make more money than the other 50% usually have more money and buy more expensive things. Trends show that 100% of the half of the wealthier americans will still be in the top half of people with more money.
Puppies are Cute! - The US Census Bureau releases a report today finding that 97% of all second graders found puppies to be "cute" in a double-blind test. A full 83% of girls tested additionally made that liittle squealing sound when initially shown the test animals. Children that did not find the puppies cute were immediately detained and later sent to the TY Corporation (maker of "Beanie-Babies") for re-education.
Journalism Degrees Given out Like Candy - With the need for more and more places to put advertising, so-called news outlets are clamoring for people to write "stories" that 30 years ago would get your typewriter taken away and your ass busted to the print shop. To fill the need for this constant generation of tripe, American colleges and universities have been filling the need by giving Journalism degrees to pretty much anyone that owns a pencil and one of them small notepads. "We blame FOX News," was the only statement released by the Soceity of American Journalism. In a side report, sensors indicate that the corpse loctated in the grave of Edward R. Murrow is reportedly spinning at a rate of roughly 2400 revolutions per second.
s'wut i sed.
Only around 2% of US retail activity is e-commerce. With less than 40 million households buying online per year, there's still plenty of headroom. This story ain't over yet.
And who would have guessed Alaska could do such a good job resolving rural access issues? Definitely worth looking into.
I always wonder how other people in the world reacted when someone like Newton, Einstein, Da Vinci, etc, made history changing thoughts or inventions. Actually I wonder this about all great changes in history. I think I now understand it. Most people don't get it! Take for example the RIAA or the MPAA, they are so afraid of change that they are going to watch their whold infrastructure collapse. This is the exact same thing that is happening on the internet today with newsprint and eventually maybe even TV. DRM is going to drain us to a point where we completely abandon the things we use today like CD's and maybe even the current generation of MP3 players. The net is doing the same thing to newspapers and TV news. I just hope someday we get tired of the sensationalistic crap that is produced and do things that are more meaningful. All I have to say is, no shit, the world is changing and I would venture to guess that 40% is low as the kids of the 90's are starting to work their way into the employment world. We are watching history, enjoy it...
I'll seed a torrent if you promise to seed once you got it.
Sig: I stole this sig.