Wednesday, June 10, 2009

Do you suffer internet fatigue?

There's a new Pew study that finds Internet fatigue is setting in.
The report, written by John Horrigan, the project's associate director of research, says 7 percent of Americans use the Internet as their primary means of social communication and also feel conflicted about that fact. These online social network users, which Horrigan calls "ambivalent networkers," are so connected they feel like they can't quit."
You can see where you fit in by taking the Quiz from the Pew survey group.

Not surprising, your intrepid blogger IT comes out at the top of the techy list:
You are an Digital Collaborator..... you use information technology to work with and share your creations with others. You are enthusiastic about how ICTs help you connect with others and confident in your ability to manage digital devices and information. For you, the digital commons can be a camp, a lab, or a theater group – places to gather with others to develop something new.

16 comments:

Марко Фризия said...

I am cool with the Internet. I can pick and choose what I want to see online. I do suffer from "transdeprenews" -- a transitory form of depression induced by my voluntary exposure to too much 24-hour broadcast news. I can only handle stories about so many shootings, plane crashes, hate crimes, and suicide bombings before my depressive symptoms begin to kick in. Social networking online actually boosts my mood.

June Butler said...

You are an Media Mover

If you are a Media Mover, you have a wide range of online and mobile habits, and you are bound to find or create an information nugget, such as a digital photo, and pass it on. These social exchanges are central to your use of information and communication technology. Cyberspace, as a path to personal productivity or an outlet for creativity, is less important to you.


I found the typo in the summary at the top a little discouraging in a techno quiz.

Leonard said...

You are an Desktop Veteran

(creaking elbows and all)

Leonardo

Frank Remkiewicz aka “Tree” said...

I are a digital collaborator too -- though I am not real keen on the collaborator part.

Cany said...

Dig. Collaborator here... shocking, isn't it?!

David G. said...

I'm a Desktop Veteran.

I shun ground line phones, why not cell phones also?
The telephone is a nuisance.

Marshall Scott said...

I'm also a Collaborator. Are we somehow all e-Quislings? That's a disturbing thought....

Марко Фризия said...

Marshall, you may have just created the 1,000,001st new English word: "e-Quisling."

NancyP said...

desktop veteran

also, unsociable. I don't really need more text messages, even if my friends sent them. I don't need endless twitters. E-mail suffices. My family isn't too computer-oriented.

also, cheap. I don't want to spend another 50 bucks a month on full internet access for a phone.

Brian R said...

I am a collaborator too but I can go a month without a single call either way on my cell phone and I do not own a blackberry etc.

IT said...

My life is all internet. I don't get calls on my phone except from my Mom and BP. I don't have a landline. I don't tweet, I don't do facebook much. Blogs are dying, and my internet involvement will die with them.

I'm and essayist, not a twitter.

We'll see.

NancyP said...

Blogs aren't going to die, because there is a space for those people who prefer to read and write items longer than 256 characters, or whatever the Tweet limit is. The same goes for news and analysis - not all people want to limit their news intake to CNN crawls.

I gave up my land line a few years ago. I don't use the cell phone as phone that much, but I am a doc and I am on call fairly often. (I still have a pager, mostly because I don't want my personal phone # known outside my department.). I get easily 5 times more use out of the PDA part of the phone - master schedule, timer, alarm clock, calculator, to-do lists and schedules, etc.

Марко Фризия said...

Nancy, we decided to keep a land line, but as a compromise we have an old rotary phone. The rotary phone is amazing technology -- it still works if the electricity goes out in a storm. I don't think blogs are dying. I think they represent a democratization of information dissemination and help promote more scrutiny of government and participation in the political process.

June Butler said...

Марко Фризия, I don't think blogs are dying, either. They will change, but they won't die.

We have one of the old rotaries, too, but we don't use it. We need to rethink that.

Paul M said...

Digital collaborator here, too. I have decided to draw the line at facebook, myspace and twitter. I just don't get twitter, and it galls me what the carriers are charging to transmit SMS messages. I text my daughter on occasion, but from email, which is free.

I don't see blogs dying, either. I suspect there may be a generational divide there, but there is a limit to how much can be said in 140 characters or whatever the limit is. We already conduct political campaigns by bumper stickers; it frightens me that the rest of our lives could be reduced to that format.

JCF said...

Desktop Veteran (i.e., Hopeless Dinosaur)

Geez: I'd be more plugged-in (wirelessly), if I could AFFORD it!