Brits suffer from discomgoogolation

Davey Winder
Wednesday, 03 September 2008 18:07

Business IT - Networking

Some of the other findings in this latest research include the fact that 53 percent of Brits were online for between one and four hours every day.

Some 26 percent were of the opinion that the Internet is an absolutely vital resource when it comes to organising their lives and Londoners in particular felt this most strongly, with the percentage climbing to 33 percent in the capital city.

Worryingly, an astonishing 19 percent of British losers reckon they spend more time on the Internet than they do with their families during the course of an average week. 17 percent saying the longest they have gone without the Internet is less than one day.

The levels of UK Internet addiction were put into some perspective by asking participants to rank Internet value in comparison to other important elements of their lives.

Some 47 percent said the Internet is more important than religion, and 17 percent miss it more than they do their friends (although it is surprising they have any on this evidence.)
 
Less surprising is the revelation that 34 percent of Brits would choose Internet access over exercise.

Back to the shocker stats quickly enough though, with 20 percent stating that they pay more attention to the Internet than they do their partners.

William Ostrom of 118118, which commissioned the research, says that "access to immediate information is a precious commodity, but often taken for granted in today's Britain. Discomgoogolation is a real, yet overlooked problem caused by our dependence on the Internet as a source of information".

But then again, so is psychobabble...