Caught In The Net
Despite popular concerns about the onward rush of technology, says Bob Worcester, 13 million have already gone on line at home
What's happening in the marketplace of the Internet today, that has us all running scared? To be sure, the financial pages, advertising, the stock market and our very lives are increasingly dominated with emails, websites, surfing, and technology. But are we 'typical' -- that useful typology for the demographer and survey researcher?
I recall having one of those pointless cocktail party discussions some years ago with a woman who expressed her disdain for my trade, saying "Nobody I know reads The Sun" and "Everybody knows that Labour doesn't stand a chance of ever returning to govern this country".
My rejoinder was: "But madam, you are atypical". She was incensed, really angry, until someone else pointed out that she wouldn't after all want to be typical, as the typical woman in this country reads either The Mirror or The Sun during the week, and The People or The News of the World on Sundays, if she reads any national newspaper at all.
So who is the typical person who uses either a PC at home and/or at work with access to the Internet? Some 28 per cent, 13 million, adults out of our nation of 42 million. A man, yes, but the number of women on the Net is growing. Young, yes, but while 54 per cent of those with Internet access at home was under 35 five years ago, note this proportion has slipped to just 42 per cent, still more than the 33 per cent represented in the adult population by those under 35. And middle class, yes, but again the domination of the middle classes of five years ago, 84 per cent of those on the Net then, but ten points fewer, 74 per cent, now.
The graph below contrasts the profile of those with Internet access at home in November 1996 compared with this past February, and while some categories remain more or less constant, such as men, 60 per cent then and 58 per cent now, others are moving up substantially. While only four per cent of Internet users the end of 1996 were in DE households, now 10 per cent are; more than double. And while only six per cent of people over 55 had Internet access at home then, now some 14 per cent do; again, more than double.
These are classic demographic differences. But increasingly, sophisticated psephology applied to the marketplace is looking at people according to their values, and the socio-consult 'map' below shows the patterns of Internet use by their values. Adding the post materialists and post moderns together, you get a third of on-line users falling into the three categories of these people, and that is, in February of this year, some third more than those who do not use the Net at home.
They are the more affluent, both in their spending habits and their willingness to try new products and services ('early adopters'). And, they're more likely to be Guardian and Observer readers.
Nearly half the public expresses their concern that technical progress is destroying their lives. We all feel that way from time to time; what if they are right Frightening thought.
Yet seven people in ten say they would really like to know more about new technology and computers. Interesting stuff.
