Bryndwr - Internet Use Project

Researcher John Stephen Veitch

Field dates 28 May, to 20 June, 2009

100 "high user" householders - How many email accounts do you use?

58.8% = one
23.5% = two
13% = three
5% = four

Only 10 people reported the spam was a problem. You can see why when you understand that the mean number of email's is FOUR a day. Some people were not very sure what "spam" was. That's a great contrast to my own experience as an early adopter and heavy user of the Internet. Good tools to control spam were not a feature of the early Internet.

People who get lots of mail need at least 2 and probably 3 accounts. All of the people in the top percentile had at least two, more likely three. Think separation: private mail; business mail; and social network mail, list mail and newsletters.

100 "high user" householders - Email's Received per Week

Most households are subscribed to several announcement only lists. Very few are subscribed to any discussion lists.

Percentiles 1 to 5
1500	1400	430	315	280	280	175	170	140	140
140	135	110	105	105	84	70	70	70	70
70	70	70	63	56	50	50	48	45	42
42	42	42	40	40	37	35	35	35	35
35	35	29	28	28	27	27	26	25	25

Median
25

Percentiles 6 to 10
25	25	24	21	21	21	21	21	21	21
20	20	20	20	20	20	19	19	14	14
14	12	12	10	10	9	9	8	7	6
6	6	5	5	5	4	4	3	2	1
REF	REF	REF	REF	REF	REF	REF	REF	REF	REF

If you want a single measure of Internet activity, email flow is the obvious measure.

The median user is getting FOUR email a day. Mail is still the prime way most people get their online news. 90% of my mail is "news" from various sites I've subscribed too. NONE of that mail needs to be answered, and if I'm very busy maybe none of it will get read. I arrange my email so that non-personal mail goes to my Gmail account.

I'm getting more than 200 email's a day. I have a business mail as well as my personal mail. If I'm time short, only about 20 of those, do I need to open. Of those 20 maybe 8 might need a reply.

Some of the mail going to Gmail, also needs a reply, if I have time. For instance I subscribe to several Ryze groups, to at least six discussion lists, to Linkedin, Facebook, Xing and Ecademy and Viadeo and Internations. Because I run groups in Ryze, LinkedIn and Xing I need to got to each of those networks every day.

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