X
Business

88% of Americans say internet plays a major role in their life

88% of online Americans say the Internet plays a role in their daily routines. Of those, one-third say it plays a major role, and two-thirds say it plays a minor role.
Written by ZDNET Editors, Contributor

88% of online Americans say the Internet plays a role in their daily routines. Of those, one-third say it plays a major role, and two-thirds say it plays a minor role. The activities they identified as most significant are communicating with family and friends and finding a wealth of information at their fingertips. 64% of Internet users say their daily routines and activities would be affected if they could no longer use the Internet. 53% of Internet users say they do more of certain everyday activities simply because they can do them on the Internet. The most popular are communicating with family and friends and looking up information.

92% of Internet users say the Internet is a good place to go for getting everyday information. 85% say the Internet is a good way to communicate or interact with others. 75% say the Internet is a good place to conduct everyday transactions. 69% say the Internet is a good way to entertain themselves in everyday life.

The single activity where Internet use outweighs the offline choice illustrates the value of two important Internet advantages: its efficiency and a virtually limitless database. A full 87% of Internet users look for maps or driving directions online, and they choose the online mode over offline mode in every measure taken. 87% of Internet users who ever use maps or get driving directions do this online. 69% of Internet users who say they get weather reports get such reports online. 63% of Internet users who say they get news in their lives get news online. 55% of Internet users who ever check sports scores in their lives get such information online. 50% of Internet users who ever look up phone numbers, addresses or zip codes in their lives get such information online.

79% of Internet users who say they communicate with friends and family use the Internet for such communications. 52% of Internet users who exchange greetings, cards and invitations go online to do so. 46% of Internet users who say they ever plan gatherings and arrange personal meetings use the Internet for such purposes. 26% of Internet users who ever plan meetings with new people or dates use the Internet for those purposes. 55% of the Internet users who buy tickets for movies, plays and sporting events do such activities online. 44% of the Internet users who say they do banking and bill paying use the Internet for those purposes. 33% of the Internet users who ever purchase everyday items go online to buy things such as books and groceries.

45% of Internet users who ever get the news get it both online and offline. Of that group, 22% access news more often online; 71% get news more often offline from places like newspapers, radio and TV. 27% of Internet users who ever purchase tickets do so both online and offline. Of those 38% buy tickets more often online; 57% buy them more often by phone, mail, or in person. 26% of Internet users who ever do banking or pay bills do so both online and offline. Of those, 34% do it more often online; 54% do it more often in offline.

Editorial standards