Survey: Most Workplace Internet Use Remains Rudimentary
The Pew Internet and American Life Project, always a source of fascinating survey results, has come out with a new one about technology and work. The latest is titled "Networked Workers: Most workers use the internet or email at their jobs, but they say these technologies are a mixed blessing for them."
The gist of the analysis is that people who use the internet at work also use it to do work at home; it makes them more efficient but also increases the demands on their time. Any of us who live that kind of life could have told you that - but what we find more interesting is the surprisingly low number of people who say they use certain technologies at work.
Greg Sterling at the excellent blog SearchEngineLand pulls out some of the most salient data points from the survey and we'll excerpt further from his post below. We question both the definition of "networked worker" in the survey and Sterling's perspective on it, though.
Specifically, the Pew study focuses on "networked workers" - defined as anyone who uses the internet or email at their work. At all. Can you guess what percentage of employed US adults say they use the internet or email at their work? Only 62%. Even that number includes people who make only the most rudimentary use of the most simple tools, however. A look at the details indicates that anything beyond the simplest tools (like the browser) is still a real fringe case.
The big take-aways from the above for us? That only 18% of people who use the internet at work use IM, only 10% report using social networks like Facebook, LInkedIn or MySpace and a mere 11% report reading blogs at work.
Only 1 out of 10 people who use the internet at work read blogs about their work; that seems like a real loss of opportunity for them.
If you or someone you love falls outside of these categories - please take our word for it - those are really useful tools! You can communicate really well (instantly, in fact) using IM and there's a whole lot of valuable information on blogs in any field. As for social networks, you'll see the value in those after you get comfortable with IM and blogs.
If you use the internet every day at work but never use IM and never read blogs on your field, you're not really using the internet - or you may as well not be. There's no shame in that, but that's how it is. To be fair, the 60% of respondents who use the internet at work probably includes a lot of people who feel pretty advanced for doing so at all after years of working without it.
Combine these numbers, though, with another reputable survey from last year that found that 11% of US respondents "said they were very or somewhat likely to...implant a device into your brain that enabled you to use your mind to access the internet if it could be done safely." An internet brain implant is a terrible idea, but they should definitely not be given to anyone who's never read a blog at work.
It's even crazier when you look at the chart above. Add the left-most numbers in this chart up and you'll see that 60% of these people use the internet at least once every day at work. But they don't read blogs, use IM or find contacts, answers or other resources on social networks.
Greg Sterling at SearchEngineLand says these numbers are probably low because people don't report accurately how much they use these tools at work - but Pew studies are really well done, they are anonymous and there's no reason to think them inaccurate as far as we can tell.
What Does it All Mean?
The survey and some early analysis of this survey point to the encroachment of work machines into our personal lives. As professional internet users, we'd point instead to the apparently huge gap between early adopter activities and the rest of the "networked world."
This is why Common Craft can make an entire business out of licensing 5 minute videos of stick figures explaining how Google Reader and LInkedIn work. That stuff is like a bright beam of light breaking through the clouds of the modern workplace. It's an important light to look at, too. Though business can clearly be done without meaningful use of the internet (obviously) - competition will likely only grow more intense.
As geek photographer and friend of RWW Aaron Hockley said on Twitter this morning "Social media search feeds. If you're not using them, you're losing business to someone who is." Those who are using them have lots of business to take, too, because almost 90% of people in the US who use the internet at work aren't even reading blogs.
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I personally use Internet both at home and at work because I work full-time and never usually have the time to do things that I normally need to do at home.
I work in a relaxed environment that doesn't suck. I think using your workplace Internet is fine if it makes you stress less and your life more manageable.
Posted by: Dwayne | September 24, 2008 6:11 PM
It is difficult to explain to an employer that just doesn't "get it", how using technology, the web and social media can benefit them. The company I work for could be revolutionized if they would simply pay attention to what is happening on the web. They could benefit from the information gathering and sharing found in social media. They could streamline workflow and reduce labor cost by using communication technology that has existed for some time now.
Many companies would have to make only a minimal investment in training and time to start using these tools. Use the computers you already have (many great web apps and tools are free), hire someone who knows the web, social media and technology and train your employees. Simple, right?
Admittedly, it might not be that simple. But I don't think it is that hard either.
Posted by: dougcoleman | September 24, 2008 8:08 PM
Hey: On Thursday, November 27, 2008, Celebrities For Charity (CFC) will raffle off a Super Bowl XXXVI ring donated to CFC by Je’ Rod Cherry. The 14-karat white gold Super Bowl ring worn by the Super Bowl XXLVI champions, the New England Patriots, features 142 diamonds. Forty-two diamonds encircle the bezel, which is the edge of the ring’s face, and two larger football-shaped diamonds are on each side of the bezel. The face of the ring displays the Patriots Logo made from red garnets and blue sapphires trimmed with diamonds. A figure of the Lombardi trophy is behind the logo and is made of platinum, a large marquis diamonds, and two tapered baguette diamonds. Winner will also receive a cash prize in the amount of $16,265.00 to mitigate the Winner’s tax liability that results a from winning the raffle. Please visit the raffle site (www.netraffle.com)
Posted by: lilly | September 24, 2008 8:49 PM
Hi Marshall. What a fantastic opportunity for entrepreneurs though!!! All those people to convert :)
Posted by: Adam Lindemann | September 24, 2008 10:25 PM
Being in the Live chat industry, we have many website owners who sell to an American audiences. The one thing we found is that there is usually a spike in traffic on shopping sites during lunch hours.
Our dataset may be small but I think it is contrary with Pew's findings. Perhaps people are not that willing to admit that they shop online during work. ;)
Posted by: Zopim: Free* Live Chat for E-commerce | September 25, 2008 1:03 AM
I am a little confused.
Only this week, Technorati was releasing its survey to show that three quarters of Internet users read blogs. Yet, according to Pew, only 11 per cent of the workers who use the internet read blogs. Even if one survey refers to the total population and the other to those in work, the difference between the two is somewhat alarming. Does one believe one, the other or neither?
Posted by: John Welsh | September 25, 2008 6:12 AM
I’m with John: confused. We have to be careful about taking the source into account, I think. Just a couple of days ago (9/15), Read Write Web discussed another study (from a social media company) that said “75 percent of employees are already using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn for business purposes.” That seems totally at odds with this Pew data, if I’m reading both correctly. And a little suspicious, too, especially coming from a social media firm. Technorati also has a vested interest in putting blogging into the mainstream. The Pew, I don’t think, has anything to gain one way or the other. I’d put my trust with them.
Posted by: Matt Lee | September 25, 2008 9:01 AM
Come on Technorati and Pew - explain this contradiction! We bloggers are quite happy to go out and celebrate the blogosphere but we don't want to spread misinformation.
And ReadWriteWeb, can we have an update, please?
Posted by: John Welsh | September 25, 2008 12:03 PM
John, I think that Pew's study is the most objective and I think that most people who read blogs at home don't do so at work. Am writing a post now about why they should. :)
Ahem, I think most RWW readers are swimming in a much different soup than the rest of the older adult world (which is more than 1/2 the population). I'm rapidly approaching 50 - nearly all my Facebook friends are younger (mostly MUCH younger). Twitter - why bother? No one I know uses it. Linked In? It's only in the last 12 months that people seem to have discovered that. AND I live right in the middle of Silicon Valley. My smart, well-educated family that lives outside of Silicon Valley is amazed when I share photos on the web. In my opinion, we're just leaving the first 10 years of a 20 to 30 year adoption cycle. I don't know when the gap between the average user and the innovators will start to close, but it's going to be awhile.
Posted by: Mark Brandemuehl | September 25, 2008 3:24 PM
I'm with Mark Brandemuehl on this (apart from being about 10 yrs older!). Enthusiasts of all kinds tend to be blinkered to the realities of the bulk of the populace. Technologies may seem to change quickly (actually, they change a lot more slowly than we think - HTML is only an extended implementation of SGML that had already been around for 20+ years before the web!) but behaviours change at the pace of human generational change.
Posted by: DD | September 30, 2008 12:41 AM