// December 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Tech News
The nagging you get from your wife, kids, or any of those other annoying people in your life is well deserved: you’re spending more time online than you used to. Not just that, but you’re likely spending more time online at home compared to years ago, though the trend over the last year indicates that things are flattening out. American adults are now spending an average of 13 hours a week surfing the Internet, according to new data from Harris Interactive, up from only seven hours in 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002. This isn’t the highest ever year, though: in 2008, the average peaked at 14 hours per week—which Harris attributes to the presidential election and the beginning of the current financial crisis—before settling back down to 13 hours in 2009. The number of adults using the Internet at home has increased dramatically over that same time period, too. Harris says that a mere 22 percent accessed the Internet at home as of January 1998 (as well as 22 percent at work); that number has gone up to 76 percent accessing it at home this year and 40 percent at work. There has been an increase in Internet use while at “other” locations as well (school, coffee shops, etc.), reflecting our growing use of laptops and other portable devices. It’s not just the average number of hours that’s flattening out, though (and we assume if you’re reading Ars, your average Internet time per week is way higher than 13 hours, just like those of us on staff). Harris says the total number of American adults online has reached 184 million—not much of a change since 2007. So what are people doing with all that extra time online? Undoubtedly playing games , watching Internet video , and galavanting around social networks , among other things. All of those activities have taken off in recent years. But don’t surf too much, lest you eventually find yourself at an expensive Internet addiction rehab center . What is a “Brief” post?”
