Who’s a heavy Internet user? Now, it’s half the online population
The threshold of heavy Internet use keeps going up, says new research from technology market researcher MetaFacts Inc. Half of home Internet users spend 11 hours or more per week online, MetaFacts reports in its 2003 Technology User Profile. Last year, the proportion of households online more than 11 hours a week was 49%. In 2001, it was 45%.
"Not long ago, someone spending more than a few hours each day on the Internet might be called an online addict, but that label could be applied today to a growing number of Americans," says Dan Ness, principal analyst with MetaFacts. "Only two years ago, one-fifth of home PCs actively connected to the Internet 21 or more hours per week. In 2003, this percentage has passed the one-fourth mark to reach 26.3%."
At the same time, though, broadband users’ average time online is shrinking. MetaFacts reports that the proportion of consumers with broadband access from home who spend more than 11 hours a week online declined to 63.1% this year from 65.7% last year. Ness says there is no clear reason for such a decline, since this is the first time it has occurred. But he says a possible explanation is that more casual users signed up for DSL or cable access and use it less than the enthusiasts who were broadband’s early adopters.
MetaFacts’ Technology User Profile study profiles how Americans use technology products such as computers, printers, digital cameras, the Internet and cellular phones. The 2003 edition of the study includes results from 11,175 respondents. MetaFacts has conducted technology user studies for 19 years.
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