This great Pew report came out quite some time ago and I just realized that I hadn't taken notes from it yet. So, here are the reading notes along with a ton of their charts (for future reference, so that I don't have to dig for them). Despite the travesty of a title, it's one of the best Pew reports out there.
The report intends to discover how the population (US only) breaks down in terms of internet usage. They looked at what people own (assets/devices), what they do (actions), and what they think (attitudes).
Methods:
The results in this report are based on data from telephone interviews conducted
by Princeton Survey Research Associates International between February 15 to April 6,
2006, among a sample of 4,001 adults, 18 and older.
* Americans sort into 10 distinct groups of users of information and communication technology - fitting broadly into high, medium, and low user categories.
* 8% Omnivores do an enormous range of things online, on the go, and with their cell phones. They are highly engaged with video online and digital content. Between blogging, maintaining their Web pages, remixing digital content, or posting their creations to their websites, they are creative participants in cyberspace. Most Omnivores are in their twenties and nearly all have high-speed connections available at home or work
* 7% Connectors. mostly female group of thirtysomethings is heavily reliant on the cell phone;
* 8% lackluster veterans: no thrill in the tech. fortyish group of mostly men came online in the mid-1990s,
* 8% productivity enhancers: tech gives a workplace advantage. in their early 40s, many with kids, nearly all with jobs. blogosphere is generally on the periphery of this group’s habits
* 10% mobile centrics. in his mid-thirties, has been online for a relatively short amount of time. Information technology, for this group, is an avenue for staying in touch with others and
adding to their “old media” entertainment experiences. They are among the heaviest
users of cell phones for most of their phone calling.
* 9%: connected but hassled. female-dominated group is in her late forties and not many would miss it if they had to without the internet, email, or their cell phone
* 8% inexperienced experimenters: likely to be a woman and entering her fifties;
* light but satisfied: she is in her mid-fifties. Light but Satisfied users do not go
online everyday, simply because technology is at the outer edge of how they manage
their lives.
* 11% indifferent: men in late 40s, dont give a damn about tech.
* 15% off the net. older americans. mid-60s, nearly three-fifths are women, and they have low levels of income and education.
* April 2006, 73% of adult Americans said they were internet users and 73%
said they used a cell phone. This comes to 85% of all Americans who are either internet
or cell phone users
* 31% of the pop is an active consumer.
* high tech users are men, but not when it comes to cell phone use
