Internet Usage Catches Up With Television In US

Hugh Pickens writes "Joshua Brustein writes that, according to a survey by Forrester Research, the amount of time people spend on the Internet has increased 121 percent over the last five years with Americans now spending as much time using the Internet as they are watching television. And while people younger than 30 years old have spent more time with the Internet than television for several years, Forrester's survey shows that this is the first year that people in older age groups are doing so as well. Forrester's survey also shows a significant increase in the number of people using the Internet to watch streaming video with 33 percent of adults surveyed this year saying they use the Internet to watch video, up from 18 percent in 2007. However the rise of the Internet is not necessarily leading to a drop in television consumption because the Internet, and particularly the mobile Internet, simply creates more opportunities for people to consume media, says analyst Jacqueline Anderson with younger viewers increasingly comfortable with the Internet as the place to watch their television. 'For the younger population, the TV is still important, but where they're getting that content from is changing,' says Anderson. 'For the generations that are coming up, that's where we're going to see the cut.'"

Comments

Re:Some people do not even watch TV

[TheRaven64]

Another AOL-style post here. When you watch broadcast TV, someone else is controlling the schedule. You are not the customer, you are the product, and you are being delivered to advertisers. I'd rather pay for my entertainment and have it ad-free and on my own schedule. I no longer own a TV, and find that I enjoy watching television programs a lot more when I get to decide when to watch them and can watch them all of the way through without interruption.