Individuals Seeking and Forming Relationships Online

Pew: Internet and American Life: There's lots of info here about Americans seeking and forming relationships over the world wide web.

Selected Highlights:

• General Info
:

• "A decade after browsers came into popular use, the Internet has
  reached into–and, in some cases, reshaped–just about every important realm of modern life. It has changed the way we inform ourselves, amuse ourselves, care for ourselves, educate ourselves, work, shop, bank, pray and stay in touch. . ."


• "On a typical day at the end of 2004, some 70 million American adults logged onto the Internet to use email, get news, access government information, check out health and medical information, participate in auctions, book travel reservations, research their genealogy, gamble, seek out romantic partners, and engage in countless other activities. That represents a 37 percent increase from the 51 million Americans who were online on an average day in 2000 when the Pew Internet & American Life Project began its study of online life. . ."


• There are Five Million Blogs

How Americans Use It

• 63% survey (18+): web-users


• Email still the "killer app" of the Internet: highest usage "Many report their email use increases their communication with key family and friends and enhances their connection to them."

More On How Americans Use It

• "The status of the Internet is shifting from being the dazzling new thing to being a purposeful tool that Americans use to help them with some of life's important tasks. As Internet users gain experience online, they increasingly turn to the Internet to perform work-related tasks, to make purchases and do other financial transactions, to write emails with weighty and urgent content, and to seek information that is important to their everyday lives. Over the course of a year, people's use of the Internet gets more serious and functional. Internet users do more kinds of things online after they gain experience, especially related to their jobs, even as they spend a bit less time online during their typical sessions. These findings come from a survey conducted in March 2001 in which 1,501 people were re-interviewed from a March 2000 survey."

Who's Using the Internet

Online Activity

Online Communities Report

• Rise in online community activity after Sept. 11



• 84% (90 million Americans) internet users have contacted an online community



• 28 million have used the Internet to deepen their ties to their local communities


• 50% of Cyber Groupies say that participation in an online community has helped them get to know people they otherwise would not have met.



• "The Internet helps many people find others who share their interests no matter how distant they are, and it also helps them increase their contact with groups and people they already know and it helps them feel more connected to them."

Faith Online

• "Nearly two-thirds (89 million) of online Americans use the Internet for faith-related reasons. "



• "38% of the nation's 128 million Internet users have sent and received email with spiritual content; 35% have sent or received online greeting cards related to religious holidays; 32% have gone online to read news accounts of religious events and affairs; 21% have sought information about how to celebrate religious holidays; 17% have looked
  for information about where they could attend religious services; 7% have made or responded to online prayer requests; and 7% have made donations to religious organizations or charities."



• "The survey provides clear evidence that the majority of the online faithful are there for personal spiritual reasons, including seeking outside their own traditions, but they are also deeply grounded in those traditions, and this Internet activity supplements their ties to
  traditional institutions, rather than moving them away from church. "



• "Faith-related activity online is a supplement to, rather than a substitute for offline religious life. The survey found thattwo-thirds of those who attend religious services weekly use the Internet for personal religious or spiritual purposes. They are more
  likely to be women, white, middle aged, college educated, and relatively well-to-do. In addition, they are somewhat more active as Internet users than the rest of the Internet population."

Blog Count:Blogcount asks: How big is the blogosphere? What is its shape, color, true nature? Blogcount catalogs efforts to answer these questions. We collect and organize the best reports and analyses on this subject.

Cellphones and Teenage Culture