Changing net is changing us

Professor Jeffrey Cole leads a team that tracks internet usage. Picture / Dean Purcell

With brands such as Google, Trade Me and Amazon.com now recognised as household names, it's obvious that New Zealanders are more comfortable than ever using the internet.

But getting a handle on trends in internet usage is less than an exact science, something visiting Professor Jeffrey Cole is seeking to fix.

For the past six years, Cole has been tracking usage and some of his findings have been surprising.

"In the early days the perception was that internet users had red eyes, were up all night, were fatter and shared less time with the family. Maybe that was true in 1995," Cole says. "[But now,] internet users get an hour less sleep a week on average than non-users but they exercise a little bit more and put in more face time with the family."

A long-time lecturer and researcher in the field of communications, Cole is the former head of the Centre for Communication Policy at the University of California at Los Angeles. He joined the University of Southern California's Annenberg Centre for the Digital Future in 2004 as director, and has been leading a team that has tracked samples of internet usage in the United States.

The centre's latest report, published in December 2005, shows email was again the most popular online activity. The other most popular categories included general web surfing, reading news, shopping, seeking information about hobbies, online banking, medical information, instant messaging and seeking travel information and arrangements.

Other findings included:

* 78.6 per cent of Americans go online for an average of 13.3 hours per week, the highest level in the study so far.

* 66.2 per cent of users access the internet at home, up from 46.9 per cent in 2000, the first year of the Digital Future Project.

* 66.3 per cent said going online at work made them more productive, up from 56.7 per cent in 2000.

Cole is also responsible for the World Internet Project, which has the ambitious aim of collecting information about the web habits of people across the world. There are 23 countries participating in the project, so far - Australia joined late last year and New Zealand is seeking to join.

Cole believes researchers missed some golden opportunities to monitor changing social behaviour in the early days of television. It's an opportunity that shouldn't be passed up this time around.

"We've seen two phases of the internet. What the third and maybe final one is concerned with is higher speeds and social networking."

Cole believes the internet will prove to be "far more significant" than television as a medium because of its myriad uses.

He also sees the internet cannibalising television audiences.

"The only social activity in American households that suffers significantly as a result of internet use is time spent watching television."

Cole knows a thing or two about television. Through the mid-nineties, he was the principal investigator of the Network Television Violence Monitoring Project, which set the debate around violence on TV and led to Cole's appearing before Senate committee hearings on the controversial subject. The internet-savvy Al Gore and Bill Clinton were among Cole's early supporters.

Now, he says, the biggest growth sector on the internet is in social networking websites such as MySpace.com, where members can post their own content and participate in a large online community.

"There's no doubt social networking is fundamental to teenage behaviour," says Cole, who points out that more teenagers are turning to the web for news from popular websites such as CNN.com and the New York Times Online.

The other major development borne out in his research has been the political empowerment the web allows. Blogs and online organisations are allowing people to voice their political beliefs and find out detailed information on issues.

Cole's research also shows internet users would be loath to give it up.

His most recent report reveals that users are willing to sacrifice TV, mobile phones and just about any other form of entertainment before giving up the internet.

The promise of the internet, he says, is that it will make other media obsolete, delivering video on demand and live television streamed to mobile devices.

"One of the most significant developments has been the rise of the wireless internet," Cole says. "It has changed the rules of everything."

* Cole will give a public lecture about violence on US television at the Auckland University of Technology's Wellesley St campus on Thursday.

* Next big thing in tech: Social networking services on mobile phones.
* Favourite gadget: Palm Treo.
* Alternative career: "Probably back in TV trying to make sure we produce good television".
* Spare time: Spent with family; reading.
* Favourite sci-fi movie: The 1968 version of Planet of the Apes.