People Like Email, New Technologies, But Not Blogs

from the in-case-you-didn't-know dept

In case you didn't realize it, it turns out that email is one of the main reasons why people go online. The article lists random other findings about how people use the internet and other new technologies, though most of them are pretty obvious. People go online for regular email first, emailing pictures second, and playing online games third. Web surfing and IM can't make it to the top 3, apparently. Broadband access, of course, is growing, and more and more people want it (now 3 out of every 4 households want broadband). I'm wondering what the other 1 out of every 4 households is saying. "No, we like being worse off". On your TV, digital cable is running neck and neck with satellite TV, but those who have digital cable also are more likely to have broadband (this makes sense, since the two come together much more easily). Also, those who have digital cable tend to be wealthier (and, I'm sure the cable industry would say, better looking). The average shopper online spent a bit over $300 in the last three months (so, isn't that just $100/month?) and focused on books, clothing, and plane tickets. My favorite stat is the last one. Despite all the "blogging" hype, only 1% of surfers visit a blog once per week.
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  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2003 @ 12:17pm

    Worse Off

    I'd expect that the 1 out of 4 families that doesnt want broadband is either claiming that it's not available to them, or else it's too expensive.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Mike, 7 Aug 2003 @ 12:20pm

    Re: Worse Off

    Good point. Not available, though, doesn't mean you don't want it.

    However, the pricing point is completely valid.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2003 @ 1:26pm

    The REAL List?

    I wonder where porn would rank if people REALLY told the truth? When I was younger I upgraded from 9.6 to 14.4 to 56K MAINLY to get faster downloads for my porn. Ofcourse now that I am older and have outgrown that sort of thing, er, my broadband is for other things like email....yeah, that's it.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 7 Aug 2003 @ 9:19pm

    be aware early, adopt late and dispose when approp

    Despite being aware of technology very early on, I consider myself to be a late adopter. I was still using a shell account to read my e-mail several years ofter the whole Netscape/Outlook thing happened. I used USENET for a significant time after the Web became popular... Still there are some things that I tried and never really liked... IRC is one. Video Conferencing is another. Currently, the whole IM thing is a complete waste of time in my opinion.

    ...funny thing though, SPAM has gotten to the point where I'm going to start phasing out e-mail out of my life if something doesn't change quickly.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Mark, 8 Aug 2003 @ 8:40am

    broadband-less

    I'm currently broadband-free, though I used to have a DSL account (terminated when I moved to an area where the service was unavailable; the company later went bankrupt). There are two reasons:

    1) Expense -- there's something in me that resists the idea that online access should be, by far, the most expensive utility fee I pay each month. I'd buy broadband at $20 per month, no doubt about it. I'd buy it at $30 per month. But in today's market I'm looking at $40-$50 per month. Too much.

    2) The available providers. In my area I can get DSL from Qwest or a cable modem from Comcast. I already do business with both companies, and I already hate both companies. The idea of becoming more entangled with their "services" is distasteful.

    I want the bandwidth, but I don't want to pay the price -- both monetary and otherwise -- for it. Eventually I'll have to leave the dialup behind, but in the meantime I'm eaking as much value out of it as I can.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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