Statistics
Statistics
Table 1
Sex 69% male
Age (average) 32 (SD=10.5)
Percent under age 18 5%
Percent over age 40 19%
Education (average) 15 years (SD=2.6)
Master's degree or above 20%
Marital Status
Never married 32%
Married 20%
Divorced 38%
Not interested in a relationship 5%
Hours Spent online (average) 21 (SD=14.0)
Less than 2 5%
More than 40 17%
Length of Time as Internet user 24 months (SD=22.0)
Less than 6 months 24%
More than 5 years 11%
Type of Connection from which connection was made(2)
University/School (.edu) 84 persons
Corporate/Commercial (.com) 113
Network (.net) 78
Nonprofit organization (.org) 3
Average Weekly Usage of Common Internet Resources
email 3.7 hours (SD=3.7)
Usenet News 2.6 (SD=3.4)
WorldWide Web (WWW) 8.5 (SD=4.9)
Internet Relay Chat (IRC) 1.5 (SD=3.3)
Usage Characteristics of Survey Respondents
The average survey respondent was 32 years and twice as likely to be male
as female. Other demographic information and data on patterns of usage are
reported in Table 1. The average survey respondent spent 21 hours per week
on the Internet, with 17% of being online more than 40 hours per week
(although it not known how much of this reported usage is job related versus
recreational). While there are a large number of new Internet users in the
survey, it is not known to what extent this is reflective of the actual
population of Internet Users.
Table 2: Selected Responses from the Internet Usage Survey
Question (keyed answer) Percent
I have spent at least 3 hours on the net at
least twice (true) 87%
More than once, I have gotten less than four hours
of sleep in a night because I was using the net
(not due to studying, deadlines,etc) (true) 46%
I have never made arrangements to rendezvous with
someone I knew only from the net (false) 43%
I have voluntarily gone more than 3 days without
connecting in the past 3 months (false) 50%
I have been told that I spend too much time on
the net (true) 58%
I have used net resources intended for Adults
only (true) 73%
I am concerned that government attempts to
control the Internet will impact negatively
on the things I like to do on the net (true) 72%
I have attempted to spend less time connected but
have been unable to (true) 30%
I have gotten into hot water with my employer/school
for net-related activities (true) 7%
I routinely cut short on sleep to spend more time
online (true) 37%
If it weren't for my computer, I wouldn't have
any fun at all (true) 11%
My work and/or performance has not deteriorated
since I started using the net (false) 31%
Given the choice between living where I do now
but having computer access and moving somewhere
strange and far away but having my modem, I would
choose to move (true) 49%
Most of my friends I know from the net (true) 12%
- Internet-Related Addictive Behavior Checklist
Table 2 shows some of the questions included in the Internet Usage Survey
and the responses to those questions. Overall, the average person scores 12
out of a possible 32 on the IRABC (SD=5.83). Scores ranged from a low of 0
(one case) to a high of 30 (one case). The overall distribution has a slight
but significant positive skew (skewness=.505, Z= 2.64, p<.01) and appears
almost bimodal with a cutoff score of 20 differentiating the two groups.
Psychometric analysis of the IRABC shows that is has respectable internal
consistency (alpha=.85). All 32 items correlated moderately with total
score, ranging from .20 to .57 with an average correlation of .42. [16]
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