The Internet As Your Significant Other
1 in 4 Americans are willing to trade their significant other with the Internet for some period of time according to a survey conducted by Zogby International and communications consultancy 463 Communications. Not surprisingly, the percentage was highest among singles, of which 31% said it could serve as a substitute.
This from a data size of 9,743 adults in an online survey conducted earlier this month. While I do not know what exactly is the timeline that the substitution would last, it does point to significant cultural changes hinting at the vast opportunities for interaction that are available on the Internet. Couple this with another statistic which states that one in four Americans has a social networking profile such as MySpace or Facebook, which increases to a whopping 78% among 18-24 year-olds, and you know where they are spending their time.
Paradoxically, however few Americans say it plays a large role in their identity as a person. Only 14% say the Internet is an important part of what they consider to be their identity; 68% responded it’s just how they identity themselves online; it’s not really who they are.
I wonder if such a research was also carried out for television, at an earlier date, and what the results of those were.
On the whole however, this doesn’t say too much about their significant other, nor about the people themselves, but it does re-emphasise what works on the Internet today.
Filed under: Digital culture, Statistics