Surfers Get Serious

Americans increasingly go online for work, not recreation or casual chats, Pew poll finds.

Saumya Roy, Medill News Service

WASHINGTON--As the Internet ages, it may be getting less fun and more serious: Americans are using it more for work than for casual correspondence, according to a new report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

Forty-four percent of those polled say the Net has helped them do a better job at work. And, as has been noted in other polls, the Internet is getting more and more use. A separate poll conducted by Pew showed that 55 million people logged on from work in January 2002, compared with 43 million in March 2000.

The Pew Center study, which polled 3533 Americans in March 2000 and contacted 1501 of the same respondents a year later, found that they are using the Net more for business than to be connected to friends or for leisure activities.

Habits Change

"I think the trends we found are robust," says John Horrigan, an author of the report by the nonpartisan research group. "Even if we had done the survey a few months later, there would not have been much difference in the results. We basically found that the users' relationship with the Net as a communication tool is deepening."

The survey found that Americans aren't just e-mailing, surfing, or playing games on the Internet. They are banking, shopping, and seeking advice. The number of surfers who had ever shopped online rose to 58 million in March 2001 from 40 million in March 2000, a jump of 45 percent. About 46 million Americans bought travel services through the Internet in March 2001, compared with 29 million in March 2000, an increase of 59 percent. The survey finds that 79 percent more people banked online and 83 percent more people participated in online auctions.

The number of people sending e-mail to their families every day dropped to 12 percent in March 2001 from 21 percent in March 2000. But 56 percent of the respondents say they sent e-mail to family members seeking advice in March 2001, compared with 45 percent a year earlier.

"This shows that peers and family are important in determining how the Net is used. The longer people are online, the less likely they are to send mail every day because they mail when they need to rather than just to say 'hi'," Horrigan says.

What Gives?

So, as the Internet and World Wide Web become a bigger part of our lives, what is being displaced? The survey finds Internet users typically spent less time watching TV, shopping in stores, and reading newspapers. Fourteen percent say they work more at home, while 10 percent say they work more in the office because of the resources of the Internet.

As people are discovering the uses of the Internet, they are getting more comfortable with it, Horrigan says. "This is particularly important with online transactions. Once they do them, they start placing more trust in Internet security and transact more online," he adds.

As people do more on the Net, they also take less time to do it. While the average time spent on an Internet session was 90 minutes in March 2000, it was just 83 minutes in March 2001.