Digital Future Project

Through the Digital Future Project, the University of Southern California's Centre for the Digital Future has released its New Internet report on the Internet use of Americans. Tracking usage over a four year time period, I'm not surprised they have noticed changes.

Among their findings:

• Internet usage is on the rise, with 3/4 of the US population now reporting they have access.
• Number of hours spent online has risen to an average of just over 12 hours a week.
• The websites users "trust" the most are those of the media and government agencies.

That last finding troubles me, along with its sister finding that people trust individuals' sites the least. While I'm not silly enough to think that there isn't a lot of inaccurate information out there on individual sites, I am Marxist enough to worry that the war for the eyeballs and trust of the masses is being given up once again to the status quo institutions.

Also, the study still conceptualizes online communications as being email only. While I can't contest this empirically, my gut feeling is that this is no longer the case. Even I was surprised at the number of people in one of my classes who report feeling "close ties" to various online communities. I would have preferred to have seen more nuanced questioning around this topic.

Still, in the conclusion of the study, the researchers are careful to note that online activity is just that - active. It isn't passive or uni-directional. They also note that the impact of the Internet on society must be taken seriously and that is certainly is being treated seriously by marketers.

They end the report with a shot across the bow of anyone who would attempt to trivialize the Internet's impact on society. They make a suprisingly empassioned case for the need to study the Internet's social impacts now, immediately.

Ten years ago, it would have seemed wildly farfetched to have predicted that the Internet might become the most influential change agent to affect culture since the creation of moveable type; today, that idea seems not so unreasonable" [P.98].

The group aims to keep the research going until they have hit the ten year milestone. I'm going to keep an eye on this reseach in the coming years - it will be interesting to see their progress and the evolution of their research approach and focus.

Download the PDF of the full report (251kb)

[report found via Tracy Kennedy's Netwoman blog]