Web Addiction

More evidence is out suggesting that Americans are becoming addicted to the Web.

Earlier this week, I reported on a survey by Websense Inc., a provider of employee Internet-management software, that 52% of managers and employees would rather give up coffee than their ability to cruise the Web for personal reasons at work.

Now, another study, this one by online ad agency Burst Media, shows Internet users are spending more time online this year than they did a year ago, at the expense of other media.

Three in five of the 2,616 respondents say they spend more time on the Net today than they did a year ago, with one-third of them saying they spend much more time on the Internet. Only 9% say they spend less time online than a year ago.

Other media didn’t fare as well among these Net users. They cut the time watching TV by 35% and flipping through magazines and newspapers by 34% and 30%, respectively. Fewer than one-quarter of these respondents increased their use of TV, magazines, and newspapers this past year. The increase (29%) and decrease (27%) among respondents in their radio-listening habits were virtually the same.

Let’s be a bit cautious about this survey. First, it was self-selecting among people who visited sites where the company brokers ads, and not a random poll of Internet users, according to a Burst Media spokesman. Second, respondents are likely people who are active Internet users, the types that visit Web communities where Burst Media sells ads. Third, Burst Media is in the business of selling Internet ads, and it benefits financially when advertisers spend more online.

Still, I don't find the survey's conclusions surprising. Our time is precious, and as more content in different forms can be accessed on the Web, it's only logical that we'll spend more time online and less time in front of the tube. Indeed, with my PC's wireless card, I can read the news online while commuting by train into the city, and I don't get ink on my fingertips.