In the article titled "UK Housewives Rule in Online Time" off of the BBC news website (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7789494.stm) , the percentages shown seem surprising.
The survey, consisting of 27,000 web users in 16 different countries placed China at the very top of their list. China's percentage of leisure time spent on the computer was 44% which is nearly three times that of a web user in Denmark.
The survey also broke respondents into age categories with an average of all countries' users under 25 spending 36% of their time online. On average, China's under 25 users spend 50%.
Along with the age category, results were also broken down by occupation and focused on the UK which showed that students spend 39% of their time online which is more than those who are unemployed at 32%...yet was less than what UK housewives spend on the Internet.
Along with these findings, the U.S. spends 30% of it's leisure time on the Internet and in response to the second question, which was "Have you ever met in person a person who you first met online?". The answer from the U.S. was a meager 56% that said yes. Compared to Germany, France, and Sweden's 75% that said yes, it was surprising that only 56% of Americans had done so. China's answer was even lower at 40%.
Overall, each country answered in it's own way and after looking at the findings carefully, i can start to understand why the results came out the way they did. First of all, the volume of people survey was not really a huge amount considering how many people live in just the U.S. and China alone. The U.S. answer of 56% could be more like 75% had more American's been surveyed. Second of all, the social and political conditions in any given country would affect the findings of this study given that not all people own computers or have regular computer access everyday. There are many different factors that could prove this study of technology not so accurate and therefore, I'm not sure i completely agree with it.
I do feel that this study is significant because it puts things into perspective for everyone, no matter what country you are from. Technology has really changed everything from economies, politics, and education to health care, communication, and relationships...the real question is if it's all for the good of everyone.
I can relate to this study just in thinking about how much time i spend on a computer. I use it for homework, research, a way of contacting old friends and family, and i even use it at work. There are not many places that you can go nowadays that doesn't have a computer of some sort. I remember being in 6Th grade and being forced to take a typing class. I remember thinking how stupid it was...now I'm so grateful that they forced it on us. The younger generations are becoming more and more technological everyday. As i watch my 7 year old niece play games on her computer, it all seems a little surreal. When i was her age, i was being old fashioned and playing with Barbies and My Little Ponies...so much has changed just in the last few years. It just reminds people that things never stay the same for too long and because of these strides in technology, we are able to live the lives we live.
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I'm glad to see you responding and thinking about the statistics provided, instead of just taking them at face-value. You have a good point about the sample size. It doesn't seem nearly large enough to really get a good feel for the online patterns of everyone in the world.
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