Everybody loves a survey (especially me) as it is a great way not only to identify the underlying social changes within the growing world, but also a good chance to laugh at the astonishing number of people who can’t identify where Australia is on a map.  This is no exception, as a survey released by YouGov in conjunction with their sponsors AMD showed that 77% of Europeans asked are addicted to the Internet.

However, one thing that surveys like this have told me: beware of gross assumptions.  So I dug out a dictionary (yes, I thought that given the subject of this survey it would be too ironic if I used the Internet) and found the definition of an addict:

add’ict noun  One who has become dependant on something

The actual answer that 77% people who answered the questionnaire ticked was:  “”[The person in question] could not live without daily access to the Internet.“  I think that counts as addicted.

Intrigued, I looked up some other famous addictions as a comparison to this figure (using European figures to make it fair).  I found that 3-7% of people are addicted to alcohol, around 10% people are addicted to smoking, and less than 1% are addicted to chocolate.  Admittedly these are estimates, but it is still amazing to see how developed the Internet is in the context of its importance in people’s lives.  In fact, it would appear it is more important to people than transport or even hygiene, with only 54% of people saying that they could not live without a car, and 61% saying they could not live without a washing machine.

There were a few other interesting figures that also arose from this survey, namely ones regarding computer use.  Although less surprising, they still give a good indicator of how our computer use is changing, with 81% of people having uploaded photos, 66% downloaded music, 77% watched something on YouTube and 76% have been gaming online in the last year.  Also, 51% have downloaded movies, but only 43% have streamed: an indicator that people not only prefer the quality of downloaded content/streamed content, but also that it is easier to download illegally than stream.  Sad but true.

Obviously, we should take this survey with a pinch of salt.  We do not know who was asked, where it was asked or whether the questions were in any way leading.  If you asked 5,000 people (the sample sized used) ages 18-23 at a gaming convention then you would expect more people to answer positively: we just don’t know. 

So is it time for Intenet-aholics anonymous?  Unfortunately, yes.  People will soon struggle to do mundane tasks without a computer: social skills in situations over the phone for example.  But people will deny that they have problems, and obviously it is less easy to identify if they are detached from society and harder to combat as many peoples jobs revolve around the Internet.

I know that I would struggle big time without the Internet: I went to Canada for a month and spent a lot of the time looking for Internet cafes.  Scary.  Perhaps they could hold IAA (catchy, I know!) meetings in chat rooms, at least you are more likely to get people to come!

Source [MarketWatch]

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