Brits spend "staggering" amount of time online

Posted on 12 Dec 2008 at 12:30

UK adults spend a "staggering" chunk of their lives online, research data released yesterday (11th December, 2008) reveals. According to the data from market monitoring firm TNS, Britons on average are spending nearly a third of their total leisure time glued to internet-connected computers.

Although the report notes that one might expect students or the unemployed to spend above average time on the web (they in fact spend, respectively, 39 per cent and 32 per cent of their time online), the group that spends the highest proportion of their leisure time on the internet is housewives. This group recorded spending almost half (47 per cent) of their free time on the net - despite them having just 5.8 free hours on a week day, barely above the UK average of 5.2.

The TNS study, Digital World, Digital Life, details how many activities now being done online. For example paying the bills - over three quarters of us (76 per cent) have used the internet for banking in the past month and two thirds of us (66 per cent) of us have also paid bills online. Banking is only narrowly beaten by general search engine browsing (80 per cent) as the most popular activity done in the last month.

Arno Hummerston, managing director, TNS Global Interavailable, said: "If our leisure time is so precious, then why do we on average spend almost a third of it using the internet? We believe it is because we are making more efficient use of our valuable time by using the internet - allowing us to fit more into our lives.

"Being online helps people fulfil certain tasks and activities quickly and efficiently. By spending productive time online, we are actually making more time for leisure. With more social and entertainment activities available online, it is also easy to understand why our lives are becoming more digital," Hummerston added.

Author: Robert Jaques