Week 6 PEW Internet - Internet Usage

For this weeks assignment I was to survey five people over 50 on questions regarding their internet usage. I was so interested in the findings that I decided to go a step further and interview five people in each of the other age groups 40 to 40, 30 to 39, 20 to 29. The questions were:

1.Do you ever use the Internet to...send or read e-mail? Did you happen to do this yesterday, or not?

2.Do you ever use the Internet to...get news online? Did you happen to do this yesterday, or not?

3.Do you ever use the Internet to...do any banking online? Did you happen to do this yesterday, or not?

4.Do you ever use the Internet to...use online classified ads or sites like Craigslist? Did you happen to do this yesterday, or not?

5.Do you ever use the Internet to...use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn.com? Did you happen to do this yesterday, or not?

6.Do you ever use the Internet to...use Twitter or another service to share updates about yourself or to see updates about others? Did you happen to do this yesterday, or not?

E-mail was used by everyone but one person in the 30 to 39 and she said it was because of texting. She can text people easier than sending an e-mail.

News was interesting. The 50 and older group still likes to get the news from TV or the newspaper but the 30 to 49 year olds like the internet because they could access more news and also be able to search for what is interesting to them. the 20 to 29 year olds said they just don't like the news.

Banking shows a trend through the age groups. The 20 to 29 year olds bank on line and had used it the day before. The 30 to 39 year olds bank on line but one person didn't do it the day before. The 40 to 49 year olds everyone but one bank on line but only two checked it the day before. The 50 to 59 year olds only two bank online and those two did check it the day before. The older group said they didn't trust doing anything with financials on line.

Classifieds were more popular than I thought they would be. Only three out of the twenty interviewed did not use on line classifieds. I was one of the three. Maybe because my husband is on there all the time I don't feel the need to look for used stuff that I don't have money to buy anyway.

Social Networking had more 50 and older people than the 40 to 49 age group. Only two out of the five used the internet for social networking. I found that shocking. I also was shocked to see that not all of the 20 to 29 year olds used social networks. One guy said it was because his girlfriend had a Facebook so she keeps him up to date on anything happening.

Twitter or other sharing sites had very few people. In fact only three out of twenty used this. The three used blogs because they are in school and required to blog. That is the only reason I blog. Before this class I would not have even thought of blogging.

Check out http://www.pewinternet.org/ and see what surveys you find interesting.