April 20, 2006
Pew Internet and American Life Project, a non-profit survey group announced the results of a recent survey that revealed that the Internet is taking a much larger role in users regular life decisions.
Approximately 45 percent of online users which is about 60 million Americans, say that they used the Internet to aid them in making large decisions or facing major events in their lives in the last two years. This has grown by 40 percent from 2002 whent the same questions were asked in a survey.
Close to 21 million Americans looked to the Internet when searching for more training for a career, while 17 million used it to determine a school for a family member or to help another person with a major sickness, the Pew Internet group said.
About 16 million Americans used the Internet when purchasing a car or when deciding on making a large investment or financial decision, Pew said. An estimated 10 million Americans used the Internet when looking for a new place to live; 8 million when changing jobs; and 7 million when facing their own major illness or health situation.
"It seems likely that the convenience of broadband draws more users to the Internet to deal with some decision," the Pew Internet group commented. That along with improving online content and web sites being more aggressive with their advertising is another possible reason for the rise in use of major decisions in life.
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