The internet – everyone’s favourite millennial next big thing – may not be making the monumental impression on society first predicted, according to a report which takes in 22 different research projects across Europe and the US. More worryingly for dotcom millionaires-in-waiting, a new category of surfer has been added to silver surfers, teen surfers and so on: the ex surfer. The research has discovered that up to 2 million people in the UK and as many as 28 million in the US have visited the world wide web, but won’t be going back for more.
The report, entitled Virtual Society? Profile 2000, forms part of ongoing research funded by the Economic and Social Research Council into the impact new information technologies are having on people’s lives and habits. Among its key findings is that those abandoning the net in greatest numbers are the teenagers many sites have been chasing recently. Too young to possess a credit card and therefore unable to participate in online shopping, the report says of this age group, “they came, they surfed, they went back to the beach.” The report states that in some ways the net may be a fad. Professor Woolgar, professor of marketing at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, where the report was compiled, said, “The results are counter-intuitive. Wholesale take up of the net is clearly not happening.” He cites the example of internet cafés, which while thriving, are actually attracting people who already have the internet in their homes. “It’s not the digitally oppressed who are going to these places,” he said.
Some of the initial key selling points of the internet are undermined by these findings: Its use as a research tool is overtaken by its role as a distraction, according to students. Overall the most popular use of the net is for social purposes, as people go online most for emailing. The report suggests that in actual fact, encouraging people to do things in a ‘virtual’ way – reading, communicating, learning and so on, may make them more inclined to seek out the ‘real’ version instead. Workplace users have also found that the promises of virtual reality do not hold up in ‘real’ reality. Rather than reducing information overload and cutting down on face-to-face meetings, too many emails have added to the problem, while use of faxes and telephone calls has stayed the same.
The majority of media companies are continuing investment in the development of their online presence, banking perhaps on the fact that the internet landscape is set to change with the advent of fast communications systems and true unmetered access. However, the Virtual Society report warns that simply making technology available is not enough: “The problem is how you get from access to meaningful use. There’s a big gap,” concludes Woolgar.
