50% Have Little Use for the Internet & Cell Phones
OTTAWA, ONTARIO - What!!!???
Yesterday while visiting the Drudge Report (http://www.drudgereport.com/), the headline above jumped off the page. Clinking on the link, it brought me to a FOXNews.com story covering a PEW Internet & American Life Project. Talk about a misleading headline. Actually, the press release PEW issued along side the report, is partly to blame.
If you visit the PEW website (http://www.pewinternet.org/press_release.asp?r=140), it’s quite a different story. They surveyed 4000 people and found that 85% of Americans use the internet or cell phones.... with most using both. Fox’s 50% number comes from the report’s comment and press release that states "fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology."
On the surface, the statement is quite at odds to the 85% claim. But upon reflection, could it be that the internet and certain technologies have become so persuasive in our daily lives that the general population doesn’t really spend a great deal of time thinking about it (iPhones excluded)? Don’t think this is the case? Look at some of the survey’s other results:
• 67% of respondents don’t feel overwhelmed with information and like having “so much information available.â€
• 48% believe technology enables more control over their lives vs. 16% who claimed less
• 73% use the internet/email at least occasionally vs. 48% who did so in March 2000.
Another aspect of the PEW study was the attitude towards technology usage as broken down by age. Not surprisingly, the younger the median age, the more “information gadgets and services†they used. To see what category of technology user you fit, the quiz and your results can be found here: http://www.pewinternet.org/quiz/
As for the PEW Internet/Fox story, I guess the headline worked. It brought me to both of their websites, albeit under false pretenses.
Posted by Morgan Elliott at 09:22AM PST
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