An annual survey released today said Americans are spending more time on the Internet than ever before, and consider it a more valuable source of information than traditional media outlets; including TV, newspapers and the radio.
For 2007, the average time a web surfer in the United States spent online was 15.3 hours weekly. That's up by over an hour a week over 2006.
As far as those who consider it the most important source of information, 80 percent of those over the age of 17 said it's more important than other media sources. That's a huge increase over the 66 percent of 2006. Television came in a distant second with 68 percent saying it was important, with 63 percent considering the radio important, while 63 percent still thought the newspaper was an important source.
Other findings of the survey of over 2,000 people was that 96 percent of internet users spend time checking email messages, and another 71 percent go around the web with nothing specific in mind, while 60 percent spend time searching for news.
As far as information for making product-buying decisions, 43 percent said they search for it, another 38 percent did their banking online, and 37 percent used instant messaging to communicate. Those playing games were up to 35 percent and 25 percent spent time on content which made them laugh.
Unsurprisingly, broadband penetration also continues to grow, with 75 percent saying their home connection is broadband, up a significant 25 percent over 2006. What surprised me in the study, was over 50 percent of those new to the Internet accessed it through a dialup connection.
Good news for those content creators, is 83 percent of those who visit sites regularly consider the information they consume reliable. That's the same as 2006. Another 46 percent said they believe most of the information online is accurate. This seems to point to visiting websites they're not familiar with.
The 10 most popular online purchases were found to be books, clothes, travel arrangements, gifts, CDs, videos, electronic goods, software/games, products for hobbies and computers/peripherals.
The survey is conducted by the University of Southern California's Annenberg School Center for the Digital Future.
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