Digital audiences: engagement with arts and culture online – November 2010
Activities conducted regularly online (cont.)
Total (computer/ mobile)
Using the internet on a computer
Using a mobile phone
Video/computer games
28%
27%
3%
Streaming/downloading music (e.g. iTunes, podcasts, Spotify)
25%
24%
3%
Telephone calls (e.g. Skype)
18%
17%
n/a
Learning how to do something (e.g. playing guitar)
14%
14%
2%
Researching your family tree
12%
12%
1%
Reading/downloading ebooks
11%
10%
2%
Creating, uploading or sharing content (e.g. YouTube, blogging, Flickr)
10%
10%
2%
Base: English online population (n=2000). Note: Question was “What do you regularly use the internet for in your spare time when using the internet on your PC/laptop?” and “…on your mobile phone?”
Among the activities conducted using the mobile phone, the most common include social networking, email and information searching. Engagement with these activities via mobile phone skews heavily towards the 16-24 age group. The young profile and rapid growth of this behaviour in recent years suggests mobile internet use will continue to grow and become mainstream within a few years. The vast majority of the online population now regularly communicate online in their leisure time: 87% by email, 45% by social networking and 33% by instant messaging. 62% have set up a profile (or registered) with at least one of the social networking sites shown in the exhibit below.27 The figure rises to 84% of 16-34 year olds having set up a profile, compared to 35% of over 55 year olds.
Exhibit 6:
Prevalence of using major social networking sites
Base: English online population (n=2000)
27
The exhibit does not show all the sites presented in the questionnaire. Also asked were Blogspot (2% set up a profile), Ning (1%), Tumblr (1%) and three sites where less than 1% had set up a profile, resulting in a total of 62% who have set up a profile with at least one site
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