I-LIST: New Report Challenges Assumptions About What The Internet Means to the Public

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From: NSF Custom News Service <cns-admin@nsf.gov>
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Subject: [pr0080] - News Releases
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The following document (pr0080) is now available from
the NSF Online Document System

   Title: New Report Challenges Assumptions About What The Internet
          Means To The Public
    Type: News Releases
 Subtype: Computer/Information Sciences, NSF-wide

It may be found at:

    http://www.nsf.gov/cgi-bin/getpub?pr0080

Full text follows.

 ---------------------------- CUT HERE ----------------------------
Title: New Report Challenges Assumptions About What The Internet Means To
            The Public
Date: October 25, 2000

Media contacts:
October 25, 2000
NSF: Tom Garritano
NSF PR 00-80
(703) 292-8070/tgarrita@nsf.gov
UCLA: Harlan Lebo
(310) 206-0510/hlebo@college.ucla.edu

Program contact:
Thomas Greene
(703) 292-8948/tjgreene@nsf.gov

             NEW REPORT CHALLENGES ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT
              WHAT THE INTERNET MEANS TO THE PUBLIC

   Americans use the Internet extensively without sacrificing
their personal and social lives, although users and non-users
alike have strong concerns about privacy.

  These were among the first results released today from a multi-
year study of how the Internet is affecting Americans' behavior
and attitudes. The report, part of the World Internet Project
organized by UCLA's Center for Communication Policy (CCP),
illuminates a nation in which two-thirds of the public has access
to on-line technology that is transforming society and the
economy. The National Science Foundation (NSF) is the primary
sponsor of CCP director Jeffrey Cole's research.

  The UCLA report, titled "Surveying the Digital Future," also
found that adults are generally satisfied with their children's
habits on the Internet, but they believe that children continue
to encounter inappropriate material online.

  "Our findings refute many preconceived notions that persist
about how the Internet affects our lives," said Cole, founder of
the World Internet Project. "Yet deeply rooted problems still
exist that have long-range implications for this powerful
technology."

  The study evaluates what users do online, how they use - and
whether they trust - the media, how consumers behave, how the
Internet effects communication patterns, and what social and
psychological effects ensue. The 2,096 respondents in the study,
both Internet users and non-users, will be contacted each year to
explore how Internet technology evolves for continuing users,
those who remain non-users, and those who move from being non
users to users.

  "This report confirms how the Internet has come to pervade
American society," said George Strawn, executive officer of the
NSF Directorate for Computer and Information Science and
Engineering. "Because the research is on-going, subsequent
reports from the World Internet Project should prove invaluable
in tracking the Internet's continued emergence as a social and
economic force."

  The study found that more than two-thirds of Americans have
some type of access to the Internet, more than half use e-mail
(54.6 percent) and 51.7 percent of Internet users make purchases
online. Nearly two-thirds of users (66.0 percent) and nearly
half of non-users (49.3 percent) believe that new communication
technologies including the Internet have made the world a better
place.

  "Historically, Americans have been quite concerned about their
privacy," said Cole, "but those concerns focused on government
intrusion in their lives. Today, the concerns about privacy are
quite different, and focus directly on perceptions of private
companies collecting information and tracking our movements on
the Internet."

  When asked if "people who go online put their privacy at risk,"
almost two-thirds (63.6 percent) of Internet users and more than
three-quarters (76.1 percent) of non-users agree or strongly
agree. Over 97 percent of Internet users who have not purchased
online express some concern about security of credit card
information.

  Adults surveyed say children spend about the right amount of
time online (89 percent) and that Internet use does not result in
a child's spending less time in person with their friends (93
percent). However, both users and non-users tend to agree that
children can gain access to "a lot of inappropriate material" on
the Internet.
                                         -NSF-

For the full report, see: http://www.ccp.ucla.edu

***NSF is an independent federal agency which supports
fundamental research and education across all fields of science
and engineering, with an annual budget of about $4 billion. NSF
funds reach all 50 states, through grants to about 1,600
universities and institutions nationwide. Each year, NSF
receives about 30,000 competitive requests for funding, and makes
about 10,000 new funding awards.

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-- Dragomir R. Radev radev@umich.edu Assistant Professor, School of Information University of Michigan Assistant Professor, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Phone: 734-615-5225 Fax: 734-763-2285 http://www.si.umich.edu/~radev



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