Being Online Has Become So Common That Some People No Longer Identify It As Being Online
from the to-be-online-or-not-to-be-online dept
One thing we know for sure is that the internet has become a growing part of everyone's lives. People are connecting to the internet for a variety of everyday activities including watching tv and movies, listening to music, reading news and gaming. With the internet becoming so ubiquitous in people's lives, would it be a surprise to see that the number of people who identify such activities as "being online" is dropping?That is exactly what Forrester Research has shown in its latest study on people's media habits. In a blog post, Forrester Analyst Gina Sverdlov points out that especially among younger internet using adults, being online is a fluid concept.
One of the biggest revelations in this year’s data was the change in attitude of consumers — particularly younger ones — toward the Internet. Since we started tracking this information in 1997, we have only seen the amount of time spent online increasing. But Forrester’s 2012 data shows that US online adults are now reporting a decline in the amount of time they spend using the Internet compared with 2011 and 2010.You can see this trend in this graphic, along with falling trends in offline activities such as watching TV and reading newspapers among adults.
What’s going on? Our analysis revealed that “being online” is becoming a fluid concept. Consumers no longer consider some of the online activities they perform to be activities related to “using the Internet.” In fact, given the various types of connected devices that US consumers own, many people are connected and logged on (automatically) at all times. The Internet has become such a normal part of their lives that consumers don’t register that they are using the Internet when they’re on Facebook, for example. It’s only when they are actively doing a specific task, like search, that they consider this to be time that they’re spending online.
What this means for those media companies that are showing a steady decline in the above graphic, and others not listed, is that if your services do not take advantage of the connected devices the current and rising generation own and use, then you might find yourself out of business. We see this happening now. Despite what some legacy industries might believe or want, that decline in offline activity is not going to reverse itself. The more the legacy industries fight that shift in consumer behavior, the faster they will find themselves irrelevant. The best thing for these industries to do is to embrace that fluid online concept and capture the attention of the rising generation.
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Filed Under: being online, studies
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Business? What business? We want to control the world.
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All they can see is if we stop getting as much for delivering content, we will make less. People will buy less plastic discs if they can just stream or download it, and without our plastic disc money we will fail!
They lack the ability to see their own history, the huge struggle against VHS coming to steal their money... and it was a huge cash cow once they embraced it.
They lack the ability to see that if a friend shares a track with someone else, that is better exposure than they can pay for. All they see is their share of the 99 cents Itunes would have collected going away, ignoring that if that new person likes it they will acquire more (barring them making it a huge pain in the ass to acquire).
People want to buy their content, not a license entangled with 100 clauses and controls to protect a business model attached. They can't see the more they seek control, the more they destroy their customer base.
I want to watch my "free" digital copy of the movie you sold me, I do not want to log into 4 different accounts and make sure I have only an approved device to watch it on. I want to hit 3 buttons and watch it, where, when, and how I wanted. I do not need extra advertising for you, I do not want to enter a 15 digit 1 time use code each time I want to watch it.
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Indeed. The harder they try to extract "value" from their content, the less valuable it becomes to everyone else.
Joe: Hey, that movie sounds great, I'd at least pay the price of a ticket to download it!. Oh wait, it says here I can only play it on "approved" devices, and that I have to always be signed in to an account to prove that I paid for it every time I watch it. Well, I would only pay a buck for that.
MPAA: The Internet isn't profitable!
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$2.50 x 10exp(-22) per electron...
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Interestingly the book publishers probably have a future in providing print copies of popular freely distributed works. Many people still prefer a real book for entertainment reading. Their editing role will be replaced by peer review on the network.
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This. I recently was sent a link to the We Are Legion movie on youtube. Watched it, then went out to try and find it on DVD. Pre-orders available from the vendor. Type of movie I am interested in watching again (like Freedom Downtime, which I still occasionally watch.) Forwarded the link off to a dozen more friends, and suspect at least one will also buy the video.
I want to watch my "free" digital copy of the movie you sold me, I do not want to log into 4 different accounts and make sure I have only an approved device to watch it on. I want to hit 3 buttons and watch it, where, when, and how I wanted. I do not need extra advertising for you, I do not want to enter a 15 digit 1 time use code each time I want to watch it.
If the digital version of We Are Legion is DRM'd, I am gonna be pissed. They say it is DRM-Free on the site, and I believe them.
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I'm trying to pick out a few key insightful quotes, but I'll just end up pasting the whole thing, so go and read it. There's some stuff on "new technologies" and how we talk about them and try to resist them, suggesting the Internet is "just a silly fad", some stuff on interactivity and old v new media, why it *isn't* a traditional publishing system and so on.
Here is probably the most relevant quote, although more aimed at computers than the Internet specifically:
Of course, the depressing thing about this article is that it was written by Douglas Adams, over 13 years ago, and we still seem to be stuck with computers and the Internet being "technology", we still get special mentions in the news when a crime is committed "on the Internet" (or when there's a risk that terrorists might plot their schemes "on the Internet."
Still, this data suggests that we are getting there...
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This is because of government friendly media brainwashing that is bought by idiots who are incapable of having a single independent thought.
The government, in league with people like Murdoch media, feed us a load of bullshit about 'big bad terrorists' or 'the scourge of pedophiles' and 'the wild west Internet'. People are stupid and they buy it and it allows politicians to pass ever more draconian laws and use censorship and criminalisation to restrict our freedom.
That is why we are not as far on as we should be.
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The downside comes when the idiots in charge decide that an always-online DRM is the way to go exactly because they assume we'll be online every single time.
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These days, you just flip open your phone and there you are. Sometimes you have to enter a wifi password but generally it's not all that different than turning on the TV.
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New Strategy for Old Media
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Glaring omissions? ... social networking, email, shopping, selling stuff, research ...
The internet is not a broadcast medium, it is a communications medium.
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"it is not a conscience"
It's globulating.
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Must...resist...cheap...shot...
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Complaining about the writing and yet you will be back tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and the next day..........
Don't you ever get tired of being a boring, repetitive idiot?
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Sure people make spelling mistakes. No-one's perfect. Just say "Spelling Error, here's the correction" and move on.
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No, you would be a troll. Which is all that OOTB is. If instead of "having those comments shredded" everyone ignored him, he'd eventually grow tired of his game and go away.
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[Boy, am I glad I scrolled down before posting a correction myself ;) ]
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I assume you've never made a typo.
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They aren't, really, in the traditional sense. Has the perception shifted, or was it really always this way? Doing appliance-like activities doesn't require a "presence" or any real work. You can make a loose comparison with radio. At one time, even simple listening required "using" a radio tuner, but the tech for broadcasting and receiving became better, then people just "listened". Only broadcasters, ham operators, and the like still "use" radio.
Internet usage is similar. You can "go online" (I've never been a fan of the usage of "online" for this purpose, even less so of "going") and do something, or you can simply use a service which happens to be delivered by the series of tubes. But for some things which might still follow the traditional definition, like using FB, FB is item of note, not the internet. (Does anyone "surf" any more?)
Hopefully I've conveyed what I'm thinking somewhat clearly. Now I've got to hit a couple Gopher servers.
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If the service you're using stops working when you don't have an internet connection, then you're using the internet. The difference is now more people don't realize it. Netflix? Internet. FB? Internet. IMDB? Internet (right in the name even). Google Maps? Pandora? News reader? Internet. Etc.
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Maybe it's time to start saying "Offline"
It's normal to be online. It's normal to have electricity and indoor plumbing. We refer to people who don't have these as being the exceptions.
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I saw this recently
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A more common term
Now the call/email/text message would tell one how long a person would be offline, now abnormal.
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