A recent study has revealed that 36 million Britons use the internet every day.
Both shocking and yet hardly surprising, this is a stat that has doubled since 2006, largely thanks to the use of smartphones and tablets giving us more access than ever before to the big bad world wide web.
If so many of us are logging on every day, it beggars the question, just what are we using it for? The results may seem obvious in some areas, but are quite surprising in others.
A Thirst For Knowledge
Topping the poll for internet usage was an option that perhaps nobody had considered — rather than cynically assuming that ‘adult sites’ would top the list, the highest ranking type of site was actually Wikipedia searches. In a world where men and women are less likely to indulge in the art of discussion and instead consult Google, this is unsurprising, but it would appear that women are more likely to use their minds. While 48% of men used Wikipedia daily, only 39% of women admitted to doing so.
On The Hunt
With today’s delicate economic climate, it’s no surprise that job hunting ranks highly on the list. 25% of men and 22% of women in the UK admitted to using the internet to bolster their job prospects, whether they were searching or applying for roles. With professional networking sites like LinkedIn on the rise, the job market is changing, leading ordinary folk to go online instead of making wasted trips to job centres.
Keeping On The Ball
One facet of the internet that has seen a huge rise in recent years is online news. 60% of men admitted to using the internet every day to access news, compared to 49% of women. More and more British newspapers are turning their attentions towards optimising their news for smartphones, while others are using social media sites such as Twitter to get the headlines. With 50% of us admitting to using social media every day, the two come hand in hand.
Point Scoring
The huge popularity of online gaming led to its exclusion from the aforementioned study, but the figures speak for themselves when it comes to the new practice. In the UK alone, £2 billion was spent on online gambling in 2012, and this is a figure that’s set to double by 2015. The popularity of online gaming can be attributed to many factors, from smartphone usage to bigger prize wins, and with sites like Coral making their own apps to cater for the keen gambler, it’s no surprise that they’re on the up.
