The image the world has about the stiff upper lip of the British is changing. They have now become very interactive and sociable. According to a report released by uSwitch.com, the average Britisher is now spending almost 30 hours a week online.
The survey shows that on weekdays most people spend about 5 hours online, of which 2 hours are related to work while the remaining 3 hours are for personal reasons including emailing, shopping chatting socializing etc. Even over weekends users spend 3 hours a day online. Youngsters between the ages of 18 – 24 years of course spend much more time online.
The time spent by users online is put to various uses. The vast majority of internet users (93%) now do their shopping online, which serves the dual purpose of saving time, as well as offering the best bargains available without having to move from shop to shop. This means that an estimated 38 million people spend up to 2 hours every week shopping online.
82% of users are believed to now manage their finances online, for which they spend anywhere up to 2 hours a week online.
At least 25% of people are quite addicted to the social networking sites and must access theses sites at least once every day. Amongst the elderly and senior citizens there is some resistance tot his trend as 67% do not use social networks at all, but 30% of those between 18 – 24 years of age spend over 5 hours a week on these sites.
A communications expert at uSwitch, Jason Glynn says, “this research shows the huge impact that the internet is having on British life. Broadband is rapidly becoming a necessity – as important as gas or electricity”. He further indicates that this trend is only likely to increase even further in times to come.
Well, there is an old proverb, which says that too much of anything is bad. Addiction to the Internet is bound to bring its own set of problems, most notably poor health due to lack of physical activity and being cooped up indoors.
Users would do well to guard against going to such extremes!
