Subscribe by EmailAmericans Spend Half of their Free Time Online
May 10, 2007 by Geeks are Sexy | 8 comments
According to a new study recently conducted by research firm Media-Screen, Americans currently spend around half of their spare time, 48% of it exactly, online. This means that people now prefer to surf the web instead of spending quality time with their friends and family. Depressing isn’t it? What does that say about the future of America?
(SAN FRANCISCO) - May 7, 2007 – Broadband users are spending 48% (approximately one hour and 40 minutes) of their spare time online in a typical weekday and the trend is increasing across all age groups, finds a new report by research firm Media-Screen. Additionally, the report entitled Netpop | Play, finds that when users are online, 54% of that time is spent accessing activities related to entertainment and communication.
Media-Screen: Americans Spend Half of Their Spare Time Online
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Only an hour and 40 minutes? WHAT? Does that mean my 6+ hours/day is weird? Crap, I think it does…NO! I’m not addicted to the internet…I just really really like it. I can quit anytime…really…ya know, if there’ll be tents, jousting, and archery…I could avoid the internet for a few days for that…I think.
Oh gosh I feel like Joey on Hackers when he’s at the “Addicts Anonymous” meeting.
Is it really that depressing, or did we always spend about that much time in antisocial (by which I mean not with family and friends) activities. I would be interested to see if TV watching amongst the test group has decreased by about the same amount.
Mine definitely has. I used to watch TV *constantly*. If I wasn’t at school or doing homework, I was watching TV, and I’d stay up late and sneak down to it after midnight to watch reruns of Star Trek and Doctor Who when I was little. I rarely watch TV now (unless I turn around from the computer at a “good part” when my roommate is watching it), and I have a job occupying more of the free time I had as a kid. I do tend to pull all-nighters on IRC now though. I think that’s more a function of not having my mom in my dorm to yell at me to go to bed at 3 am though.
What’s scary here is the implication that Americans have an average of less than three and a half hours of free time a day.
I agree with you, 3 hours is not enough.. and that 3 hours is mostly at night, after work, when we’re tired..
I would also like to see the numbers for TV usage to see if they have gone down. The amount of time spent in commercial breaks certainly hasn’t dropped! Spending on on-line advertising is going up, so I wonder how much TV ad revenue is suffering, if at all.
That’s it? I spend all my work hours (8) online…and then i go home and spend at least 6 more hours online.
Does that make me an internet adict?
Long life to the “not a dump truck” thing.
If we all spend upwards of five hours online–that being our free time–but the average is only an hour and forty minutes, how little free time do some people have? That’s really scary.