We may be approaching a cultural milestone. In the UK, people who have interent access are spending more time online than watching TV, according to a survey reported in Internet Magazine.
"The survey by NOP showed that people with both Internet access and a TV at home spend an average of 3.5 hours a day surfing, but 2.8 hours a day in front of the box.
It also showed that 44 per cent think the Internet is a better source of entertainment and news than television.
The survey is the first to show that the Internet is more popular than TV, in households that have both."
The exact details of this survey are scant. For example: do the 3.5 hours spent surfing include use of the internet at work? (I think it would have been worth distinguishing between business use of the web, and entertainment use.) What group was surveyed? How representative was it? Etc.
I also get twitchy whenever I hear that a survey has been sponsored by a corporation that seems to have a related agenda (in this case, BTOpenworld, which is trying to increase the market for its broadband services in the UK).
While it is perhaps premature to say that web use is now more prevalent than television-watching, I nevertheless think that this survey is, at least, prophetic of what's to come.
The web has acquired a massive worldwide user base in less than a decade -- a much faster take-up rate than radio or television enjoyed.
The web is likely to become a more important medium than television in less than a decade. Indeed, it is likely to change television's function, just as TV changed the function of radio before it.
Meanwhile, we can expect a lot of mixing and matching over the coming years among technologies such as the internet, television, computers, games consoles, videoconferencing, digital sound and image recorders/players and phones.
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