Brits living the ‘tech utopia dream of 1998’
- Added:
- May 27, 2008
Technological advances people hoped for ten years ago have become the reality, according to new consumer research.
The new '21st Century Life Index Report’, commisioned by BT, aserts that Brits are now 'living in the technological utopia envisaged in 1998'.
BT interviewed a cross-section of the British public and compared the results with those from 10 years ago.
The survey findings indicate that the functionality that people desired from the Internet in 1998 has now become the norm, with users seeing direct benefits to the way they live their lives today.
In 1998 44% of people online used the Internet to regularly stay in touch with friends and family, ten years on and that figure has risen to 74% of us who now stay in touch over the net.
But despite advances in technology and communication tools, results show the preferred method of communication is still face-to-face.
In fact, this is even more popular today with 68% of people preferring face-to-face contact compared with 51% ten years ago.
Perhaps surprisingly, it seems that the telephone has become a less popular communication tool in 2008, whereas in 1998 36% of respondents preferred this method compared with only 18% in 2008.
In contrast, email has jumped in popularity since 1998 when only 1%1cited this as a preferred method with the figure rising to 7% in 2008.
46% of the country in 1998 wanted instant access to travel timetables and in the last three months, 43% of consumers say they have accessed exactly that, going online and downloading the travel information they needed.
Other desirable services in 1998 like shopping (36%) and the ability to access information services (44%), mirror perfectly how contemporary consumers are using the Internet: 41% of consumers have shopped online in the last three months and 43% of consumers have checked out information services.
The scale of our reliance on the Internet is reflected in the fact that the proportion of the country who are now spending more than 5 hours per week online has doubled in the last 10 years from just 24% in 1998 to 57% in 2008.
The average number of websites a person visits in any one week has also risen dramatically, with 19% of internet users now visiting more than 20 different sites.
Social networking online is increasingly the norm now, with 25% of internet users interacting with these sites in 2008.
But by far the biggest users of social networking are the 16-24 year olds (58%) followed by 25-35 year olds (39%).
Commenting on the findings, Alnoor Samji, Director, Ipsos MORI, noted: “The results from BT’s 21st Century Life Index Report reveal how consumers have steadily shifted their communications habits over the last 10 years from exclusively voice and mobile, to email on the move - as well as much greater interaction with social networking sites - to help them stay in touch with friends and family.
Consumers are telling us that instead of carrying around lots of different devices, what many really want is one communications tool that allows consumers to send emails, IM, make calls, access social networking sites and information online while out and about.
So looking at these current trends and how they might unfold over the next 5 years, could this spell the death of text messaging as we know it?”
Research methodology
BT worked in conjunction with Ipsos MORI to undertake research into the current usage and attitudes of the general public towards technology in the 21st Century.
A total of 1,150 confidential face to face interviews were conducted in-home across Great Britain between January 25th and January 31st 2008. The 1998 MORI study, which was used to benchmark the findings of the 2008 study, was conducted face to face amongst 2,124 members of the general public across Great Britain.