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Pew: How the Internet Matters in Our Lives

Whine if you will WSJ and others, but the rest of us depend on the Internet to help us through life in positive ways. Recent (4/19) Pew Internet and American Life surveys “show that 45% of internet users, or about 60 million Americans, say that the internet helped them make big decisions or negotiate their way through major episodes in their lives in the previous two years.”

In terms of growth of importance, the Pew surveys show these changes in the past three years (2002 vs 2005):

# 54% in the number of adults who said the internet played a major role as they helped another person cope with a major illness. And the number of those who said the internet played a major role as they coped themselves with a major illness increased 40%.
# 50% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they pursued more training for their careers.
# 45% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they made major investment or financial decisions.
# 43% in the number who said the internet played a major role when they looked for a new place to live.
# 42% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they decided about a school or a college for themselves or their children.
# 23% in the number who said the internet played a major role when they bought a car.
# 14% in the number who said the internet played a major role as they switched jobs.

The Pew report “Major Moments” is here [in PDF].

Dan Gillmor uses the reports to take on WSJ’s Dan Henninger on his Center for Citizen Media Blog.

1 Comment

  1. Mark23

    Internet is playing an important role in our day to day life, it may be some basic question or serious situation, you can definitely find a solution to your problem with the help of internet

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