Study: Internet Use in U.S. Homes Routine
Sun Dec 29,12:03 PM ET


WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Internet has become a staple source of information for American households about health care, government services and potential purchases, a survey to be issued on Monday finds.

About 60 percent of 2,000 people surveyed in the Pew Internet and American Life Project study said they used the Web regularly. Two-thirds of those had been online for three or more years.

At least 80 percent of the Internet users questioned in September and October said they expected to find reliable news, health care information and government services information on the Web.

Almost as many Internet users, 79 percent, said they expected to find a business with a Web site that will give them information about a product they are considering buying.

"With the passage of time, people are gaining more experience and comfort with the Internet and what it offers," report author John Horrigan said in an interview.

"People value the vast array of information online, and new search engines give them the ability to noodle along and find what they want," Horrigan said.

The "network of networks" has become integral part to the daily routines of millions of North Americans, agrees Barry Wellman, a University of Toronto professor and the co-author of the book "The Internet and Everyday Life."

"Even five years ago the Internet was seen as very special, a privileged and very unique thing," Wellman said. "Now it is routinely accepted into peoples lives, especially younger folks."

The Internet has its roots in the 1960s, when university researchers began sharing information between mainframe computers connected by a government-run network called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPAnet).

In 1983, ARPAnet was opened up to anyone with a computer and access to a phone line, as addressing and routing of information was made simpler.

Although Internet penetration remains low in some countries, particularly where telephone access is limited, Caroline Haythornthwaite, Wellman's co-author and a University of Illinois professor, said public expectations are spurring the technology's continued expansion.

"We now expect the physical hardware to be there, in hotels, in schools," she said. "There's a certain seamlessness to it. In many ways, it is integrated into everything we do."

The Pew Research Center describes itself as an independent opinion research group that studies attitudes toward the press, politics and public policy issues and is sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts, charitable funds established between 1949 and 1979 by the children of Joseph N. Pew, the founder of Sun Oil Co.
 

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