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Information relating to online use of the Internet by youth across the globe was made available in a series of reports released this week. One American report found that 72% of all 18 to 34 year olds in the U.S. are now online, and that 30% regularly view entertainment websites — just short of the 32% that read similar pages in newspapers, but much higher than the only 19% that read entertainment magazines.
In a report by Statistics Norway, on behalf of the Norwegian Telegram Bureau and Telenor, published on the (just-added) Smart Mobs blog …
“In Norway, all teenagers between 16 and 19 years of age have a cell phone. When teens say that ‘everyone has a cell phone’ it’s no joke. According to a new study, 100% of all 16 to 19 year olds who were surveyed, replied that they have their own cell telephone. This compares to the rest of the population where 86% have a mobile telephone. Norwegians send an average of 2.8 private text messages per day, but young women between 16 and 24 are the most active: They send over 8 text messages per day on average … Basically the report says that they could not find a 16 to 19 year old in Norway who didn’t own a mobile phone.”
Meanwhile, in an article on the New York Times wire service, Circuits contributing editor Katie Hafner reminds readers of the recently released Pew Internet and American Life Project report, which found that use of computers, and access to the Internet, by seniors — “a group once largely written off as a lost cause” — has jumped by 47 percent since 2000.
“People who are in their 50s now, once they begin on a computer there’s no going back,” says Tobey Dichter, president and chief executive of Generations on Line. “Once they get adept, especially at the Internet, they don’t give it up.”
According to this CNN story the typical Internet user — far from being a geek — shuns television and actively socializes with friends. The finding are published in the first UCLA Centre for Communication Policy report on global Internet use, titled the World Internet Project.
The times, they are a-changin’. The hi-tech revolution is well underway.
