How Much Time Do You Spend Online?

by Brian Carr on April 30, 2007

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Have mankind’s basic needs evolved to include time on the internet? From the results of a recent poll, it certainly seems that way!

According to a poll on The New Business Blog, nearly 65% of us spend at least eight hours each day trolling the internet. It doesn’t take a math wizard to see that this represents, at minimum, 1/3rd of a day.

The results of the poll breakdown like this: 64% of respondents stated they spent at least eight hours on the internet each day; 20% of respondents stated they spent between five and seven hours on the internet each day; 14% of respondents stated they spent between two and four hours on the internet each day; and only 2% of respondents stated they spend one hour or less on the internet each day.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m sure the results of this poll are slightly skewed for a couple of reasons, namely, the poll was conducted online and because The New Business Blog isn’t normally a site that a lot of people just come to (people tend to stumble upon it while surfing the net) it seems to me that the site’s visitors are probably people who spend a decent amount of time online.

That being said, even for 65% of the survey’s respondents to state that they spend at least eight hours each day online really blows my mind. I know that we have become accustomed to the internet and, on some levels, depend on it, but the fact that a majority of us are spending more time online than sleeping is a bit disconcerting.

Fortunately for those of us who run online businesses, this is pretty good news. During the days of dial-up, when people didn’t spend a whole lot of time online, it was tough to make sales and get your site seen by lots of people. But now that most people have high speed internet and spend lots of time online, the chances of you scoring sales or hits has really increased.

Now, get off the computer and go get some exercise!

{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }

jpez May 1, 2007 at 5:43 am

From a statistical standpoint, your claims are garbage. Not only is your sample non-random in that it self-selects for people who spend time online, but it likely has a huge non-response bias as well. People who spend more time online are more likely to respond to your survey, because the “extremes” are the most likely respondents to voluntary surveys, as any high school statistics student can tell you. Although intriguing, your study is worthless.

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Brian Carr May 1, 2007 at 5:53 am

jpez – do me a favor and read the fourth paragraph.

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Sandra November 19, 2009 at 3:13 am

Jpez- go ahead and read his “study” again and than think about what you said.

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Chuck November 20, 2009 at 12:02 pm

I agree with jpez. The survey is flawed. However, it is interesting that there is such a large population of people who do spend 8 hours a day online.

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