Selected news stories about the Pew Internet Project and articles citing our data.
New Report Indicates Consumers Embracing
6/24/2002 | 
Coverage
Doug Bedell, The Dallas Morning News
'The high-speed Internet connections arriving in American homes are dramatically altering online behavior, pushing users to spend less time watching television, reading newspapers and shopping in stores, according to a report to be released Monday.
"The most elite users have clearly adopted a broadband lifestyle that is built around finding, generating and manipulating digital content," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
"They are shaping the character of the online world every day."
In its survey titled "The Broadband Difference," Pew researchers gauged the attitudes and behavior of 507 adult members of the steadily growing home broadband population.
Since Pew began examining users of cable and digital subscriber line Internet connections two years ago, the number of home broadband users has risen from 6 million to 24 million.
About 21 percent of all Americans with home Net connections are now hooked up via these faster, always-on electronic pipes, the nonprofit institute estimates.
Despite widespread complaints that service providers have been slow to roll out home broadband offerings, Pew researchers said adoption rates mirror those of other popular technologies, including the compact disc player and the personal computer itself. Broadband is being embraced by consumers more rapidly than color TVs and VCRs.
With the expanded adoption of broadband, a dramatic shift in usage patterns is taking place, the report found.
"The extra time spent online due to broadband - and the wider range of online activities done by broadband users - comes at the expense of the use of traditional media," the Pew study says.
All told, 37 percent said their Internet use has decreased the time they spend watching television, and 18 percent reported that Internet use decreased their time reading newspapers.
Meanwhile, broadband home users are more inclined than typical dial-up users to create Web content, share files with other Internet users, conduct research, seek out news, buy products and perform work-related duties, the survey found.
Typical broadband users perform an average of seven Internet activities on any given day - more than twice the number of a typical dial-up customer.
And, the survey shows, the constant Internet connection is just as important to them as its speed. When a computer with high-speed Net connection is within reach, Pew found, users are more
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