The Web in Daily Life

In a series of tracking surveys by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, online Americans report that the internet has brought significant improvements to four areas of their lives: the ability to pursue hobbies and interests, shop, work, and obtain health-care information; some 33% say their ability to pursue hobbies and interests has greatly improved, 32% say so about their ability to shop, 35% say so about their ability to do their jobs, and 20% say the internet has greatly improved the way they get information about health care. In all four categories, the internet earns the highest marks among those who use it most frequently. Daily internet users are twice as likely to report that it improves their ability to do their job “a lot.” Similarly, 39% of daily internet users say it has improved their ability to pursue hobbies and interests “a lot,” while the proportion of weekly internet users who say so is about half as large.Read More