• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, August 29, 2004

The Offline Real World Tops the Internet for Daily Tasks and Recreation

Based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans' use of the Internet by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 88% of online Americans say the Internet plays a role in their daily routines. Of those, one-third say it plays a major role, and two-thirds say it plays a minor role. The activities they identified as most significant are communicating with family and friends and finding a wealth of information at their fingertips.

Though the Internet excels in several consumer activities, two different measures suggest that, overall, the virtual world of the Internet still takes second place to the real world as the place to accomplish daily tasks or enjoy recreation.

Among the many Internet users who toggle between the offline and online worlds for activities, most use the "real world" alternative rather than the online alternative. For example, Internet users buy movie tickets more often at the box office than buy them online.

When Internet users do a certain activity exclusively in one realm, more will still do it exclusively offline than exclusively online. For example, among Internet users who ever look for sports scores, almost twice as many will look for them exclusively offline as exclusively online. Of Internet users who ever look up addresses or phone numbers, many more will use phone books than online sources to get this information.

When users generally prefer the offline world to the online world even when they are comfortable doing things online:

• 45% of Internet users who ever get the news get it both online and offline. Of that group, 22% access news more often online
• 71% get news more often offline from places like newspapers, radio and TV.
• 27% of Internet users who ever purchase tickets do so both online and offline. Of those 38% buy tickets more often online; 57% buy them more often by phone, mail, or in person.
• 26% of Internet users who ever do banking or pay bills do so both online and offline. Of those, 34% do it more often online; 54% do it more often in offline.

When people get information for their everyday lives:

• 87% of Internet users who ever use maps or get driving directions do this online.
• 69% of Internet users who say they get weather reports get such reports online.

When people explore everyday interpersonal communication:

• 79% of Internet users who say they communicate with friends and family use the Internet for such communications.
• 52% of Internet users who exchange greetings, cards and invitations go online to do so.

Of those who explore commonplace transactions:

• 55% of the Internet users who buy tickets for movies, plays and sporting events do such activities online.
• 44% of the Internet users who say they do banking and bill paying use the Internet for those purposes.

When people entertain themselves in everyday life:

• 46% of the Internet users who ever play games do so online.
• 23% of the Internet users who say they listen to music or radio regularly do so online.

Calculations are based on the percentage of Internet users who undertake that activity somehow in their everyday lives - either offline or online, or both ways.

You can find out more here.