If you have an Internet connection, then chances are you are spending much more time surfing the Web than watching a TV.
A new IDC study of consumer online behavior found that the Internet is the medium on which online users spend the most time (32.7 hours/week). This is equivalent to almost half of the total time spent each week using all media (70.6 hours), almost twice as much time as spent watching television (16.4 hours), and more than eight times as much time as spent reading newspapers and magazines (3.9 hours).
"The time spent using the Internet will continue to increase at the expense of television and, to a lesser extent, print media," said Karsten Weide, program director, Digital Media and Entertainment at IDC. "This suggests that advertising budgets will continue to be shifted out of television, newspapers, and magazines into Internet advertising."
The data also show that consumers tend to use the media they grew up with. The older the respondents, the more they consume TV, newspapers, and magazines -- the younger they are, the more the Internet displaces usage of traditional media. Using search engines (84 percent of respondents), mapping and navigation services (83 percent), personal research (77 percent), and using email (76 percent) are the most frequent online activities.
The types of devices employed to access the Internet will continue to diversify, and Internet usage will become more mobile. In addition to desktops, laptops, and mobile phones, a new category of "web gadgets" such as the Amazon Kindle, the Nokia N800, and the Apple iPod touch will use WiFi wireless connections to access the Internet.
The IDC market study outlines the results for wireline Internet usage from the "2007 U.S. Online Consumer Behavior Survey," which was designed to provide a comprehensive overview of U.S. consumers' online activities. Results are based on a sample of 992 U.S. residents 15 years of age or older who frequently use the Internet, including quotas by gender, age group, ethnicity, region, and income.
