B.C. residents at head of Canada's digital parade British Columbia Internet users spend on average 17.4 hours a week online
Gillian Shaw Vancouver Sun Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Canada has seen a dramatic change in Internet use in the past three years, with 100 per cent of young people reporting they have gone online and more than half of Canadian seniors embracing the technology, according to a study released Tuesday by the Canadian Internet Project.
The online experience has been transformed from information-gathering into one of entertainment and social engagement, according to the study, and British Columbians are at the head of the digital parade.
"The most fascinating thing to me is that we are seeing a dramatic increase since the CIP 2004 study in the time spent on entertainment-related activities and social engagement, especially among youth," said Charles Zamaria, a professor at Ryerson University School of Radio who is principal investigator and project director for the Canadian Internet Project.
"This has important implications for both online and offline culture, as does the increase in the use of novel and interactive applications online."
Zamaria said the study belies the belief that Internet adoption is displacing traditional media, with Internet users simply adding to the overall time they spend with traditional and new media.
"The amount of time spent on traditional media is identical for non-Internet users and Internet users," he said. "They are finding more leisure time.
"It speaks to the fact of the whole fallacy that the sky is falling and the Internet is going to take over," said Zamaria. "I don't think that is accurate.
"When we profiled our heavy [Internet] users, they have higher levels of mass-media consumption, including radio, television, newspapers, magazines. It's almost like media begets media; they tend to like media and the Internet."
British Columbians are among Canada's "digerati." According to the study:
- Residents of B.C., Alberta and Ontario have the highest rates of Internet penetration.
- British Columbia has the highest level of high-speed connectivity in the country at 88 per cent.
- At 47 per cent of all Internet users, residents of B.C. are the most likely of any province in Canada to have more than one computer at home, followed by Ontario at 46 per cent and Alberta at 45 per cent. Only 36 per cent of Internet users in Quebec are likely to have more than one computer at home.
- ICTs, information and communications technologies that can include everything from video game consoles to personal digital assistants, have the highest adoption levels in Alberta, B.C. and Ontario.
- British Columbians spend more time than other Canadians reading books.
- Residents of B.C. and Alberta are more likely to look for government information online and they are the heaviest users of online government services.
- 52 per cent of British Columbians say the Internet has improved their productivity at work, compared to 33 per cent of residents of the Prairie provinces who say it has helped.
- British Columbia residents are generally more receptive to e-commerce than are residents of other provinces.
- British Columbia Internet users spend on average 17.4 hours a week online, behind Albertans at 19.5 hours and Ontario Internet users at 18.2 hours. People in the Prairie provinces are online 14.2 hours a week and in Quebec it is 13.9 hours a week.
Zamaria said the digital divide, between those who have the means to access the technology and those who don't, has largely disappeared, although a divide still remains between anglophones and francophones. Some of that, he said, might be accounted for by a lack of technical infrastructure in Quebec as well as language, since English is the predominant language online.
Zamaria said that for the first time, the study had a 100-per-cent response in some age groups to the question, "Have you ever been online?"
"It is universal with youth aged 12 to 17 and we also got the same response among young adults aged 18 to 29," he said. "100 per cent said they had been online at some point in their lives.
"The anticipation is that they will be back online."
Among all Canadians, only 12 per cent haven't been online, meaning almost nine out of 10 Canadians have been online at some point. With public access to online computers available at libraries and other sites, Zamaria said only nine per cent cited cost as being a factor keeping them away from the Internet. For most it was some sort of technical encumbrance like a lack of knowledge on how to use computers.
Among those aged 60 and above, 51 per cent are online.
"They are not just looking at their e-mails or checking search engines," Zamaria said. "About two out of 10 of those over 60 are engaged in social networking -- they are on Facebook, they are following the footsteps of their grandchildren.
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