A Survey of Technology: Internet and Cell Phone Usage

1. A Survey of Technology:Internet and Cell Phone Usage Katherine Snyder EDCT 501 Summer 2010

2. Goals of Survey • Identify the age range of the respondent • Identify the rate and purpose of cell phone usage • Identify the rate and purpose of internet usage • Analyze survey data for any correlations between age and rate and/or purpose of cell phone usage • Analyze survey data for correlations between age and rate and/or purpose of internet usage • Support findings with previously conducted research

3. Implications of Survey • The obvious implications of my researching correlations between age range and technology usage, specifically cell phones and the internet, are that it makes sense I would find older people to be more out of touch than younger more tech savvy individuals. • More importantly, if significantly younger people are using theses technologies more often and for social purposes, then it lends to the need for the use of more technology in schools for students as well as educators.

4. Survey consisted of 12 questions: • One asked age range • Three asked about cell phone usage rates and for what purpose • Two asked about computer usage in general • Five asked about internet usage rates and for what purposes • The last question asked about other technologies used on a daily basis but was open-ended and not required as it has no value in my goals.

5. Spreadsheet Created by 16 Survey Responses:

6. Age Range • Of the 16 respondents: • Zero were in the range of 18 years old and under. • Eleven were between the ages of 19 and 25. • Two were between the ages of 26 and 30. • Three were 31 years old or older.

7. Cell Phone Usage Rates and Purposes: • 15 of the 16 use a cell phone on a daily basis. • Respondents primarily use their cell phone for texting (as seen by the chart below) with the majority at a moderate rate of 11-15 times per day. Number of Responses

8. General Computer Questions • Question 5 asked if respondents use a computer on a daily basis. • 100% answered “yes” • Question 6 asked if respondents own a laptop computer. • 100% answered “yes” • While not directly stated in my goals, it is helpful to establish whether or not respondents have easy access to the a computer and thus the internet as this may have some bearing on their usage rates.

9. Internet Usage Rates and Access: • All 16 participants claim to access the internet on a daily basis • Only 7 of the 16 use the internet from any type of hand-held device • When asked for what purpose (school, work, personal, or a combination of those) the internet was accessed, a 25% majority of respondents responded with all of the above as shown below. Number of Responses

10. Internet Usage Purposes: • When asked for what purpose (school, work, personal, or a combination of those) the internet was accessed, a 25% majority of respondents marked “all of the above” as shown below. Number of Responses

11. Email and Social Networking: • 63% of respondents check email 0-5 times per day. • 81% of respondents use social networking sites (ie. MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc…) 0-5 times per day. • These are overwhelming majorities of people who are shying refraining from the excessive account checking we often see these days. Checking Email Using Social Networking Sites

12. Correlations Between Age and Cell Phone Usage and/or Purposes? • There were not any clear correlations between age range data and cell phone usage rates and/or purpose in my survey data.

13. Correlations Between Age and Internet Usage and/or Purposes? • There are not any clear correlations between age range data and internet usage rates and/or purposes in my survey data.

14. Supporting Research 1 • Rice, R.E. & Katz, J.E. (2003). Comparing internet and mobile phone usage, adoption, and dropouts. Telecommunications Policy, 27(8-9), 597-623. • This article confirms that age has little bearing on internet and mobile (cell) phone usage. Instead they suggest that income and education are the two strongest correlations.

15. Supporting Research 2 • Nie, N.H. & Erbring, L. (2000). Internet and society: a preliminary report. Stanford Institute for Quantitative Study of Society, 1-49. • This article states that while age can sometimes be a prohibiting demographic factor in gaining access to the internet, it is not a factor in amount of internet usage or for what purpose the internet is used.

16. Supporting Research 3 • DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Celeste, C., & Shafer, S. (2001). From unequal access to differentiated use: a literature review and agenda for research on digital inequality. The Russell Sage Foundation’s Inequality Project, 1-73. • This article maps out the distinctions between internet usage among several sociodemographic groups. While there is a peak of internet usage around age 15, the decline from there to age 65 is very minimal. The authors maintain that much of the variation in usage rates are due to income and education attainment levels.

17. Conclusion • While my data does not show any strong correlations between age range and cell phone and/or internet usage, there may other conclusions drawn if I were to go back and add gender, ethnicity, occupation or another variable into the mix or be able to survey a larger population with equal amounts of individuals in each age range. For this survey, however, the data have spoken. http://www.hr.armstrong.edu/sac/imgs/computer.jpg