Internet Use Explodes

Fast Company reports that a new survey by Forrester tracking U.S. consumer activity has revealed that the Net has caught up with TV as a pastime–and while TV’s not going away just yet, this pretty much cements the future of web-based TV.

Forrester has been carrying out this kind of research for years, but this is the first year in its surveys of U.S. consumers–40,000 of them, in this case–that the amount of time spent watching TV has been equalled by time spent online. Both see the average U.S. consumer devoting 13 hours a week.

But the TV figure hasn’t drifted down appreciably. Rather Net use has exploded upwards, rising 121% over five years, displacing other activities like listening to the radio and reading magazines and newspapers offline.

And what are they doing online? Shopping (about two thirds of responders shop online, up from a third in 2007) and using social networks like Facebook (35% of responders do this regularly, up from 15% in 2007).

But email is still the biggest draw, with 92% of people saying this is one of the things they regularly do online. Reading blogs is only something that about 18% of the surveyed group did often, including you.

Photo by Ed Yourdon.

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