'Tech elite' choose Web over TV

The Washington Times ^ | November 24, 2003 | Tim Lemke

[expat_panama]

A growing number of Americans would rather surf the Web than channel surf.

More than a third of Americans are more likely to download music, create a Web page or edit a digital movie than watch television, says a report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

[expat_panama]

Twenty years ago I had subscriptions to Time and Newsweek, and I used to actually tape Peter Jennings to be able to watch the news when I got home.  Things change.

[woofer]

...I used to actually tape Peter Jennings to be able to watch the news when I got home...

I do that now, but only so I can burn the tape without watching it.

[leadpenny]

Age or ability, I am in no way one of the "Tech Elite," but if I had to turn one of the them off (TV or the computer), it would be the TV. BTW, my Washington Times is still in its plastic wrapper out on the driveway.

[marktwain]

I no longer watch television. Not only is it a waste of time, but I made a concious decision *not* to pollute the data stream.

This trend is one of the reasons we are winning the culture war.

The left has only lies and propaganda to offer. Conservatives and Liberterians offer morality, reason, logic, and truth.

[demkicker]

Conclusion: FR will keep growing & growing!!!

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

Here's an expanded article from the Detroit Free Press. Note the key line, omitted in the WT version: "...a group of tech-savvy consumers who have scared the bejeebers out of big media and telecommunication companies." Add politicians dependent on an uninformed herd of voters... Tom Daschle is deeply saddened...

MIKE WENDLAND: More are tuning in to a wireless world

Tech elite disconnect from TV, landline phones

November 24, 2003

BY MIKE WENDLAND
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

To understand Steve Klein's world, you need to imagine someone for whom there's no time but now, someone who can communicate with anybody from anywhere, someone who gets his news and entertainment his way on his schedule.

Except for Saturdays, when Klein -- an Orthodox Jew -- observes the Sabbath, the 38-year-old Oak Park resident is always connected to friends, family and his own network of information. And he doesn't need a telephone, television, radio or a newspaper to do it.

Klein is part of an emerging technology elite, a group of tech-savvy consumers who have scared the bejeebers out of big media and telecommunication companies.

According to a nationwide study released Sunday by the Pew Internet and American Life Project, these technophiles are more dependent on computers, mobile phones and the Internet than they are on older technologies like radio and land-based telephones.

They're not just turning away in big numbers from prime time TV and reading the newspaper over the Web instead of on dead trees. They're also demanding better service -- and more of it -- from the companies that provide their connections to the world.

And in what Pew says is clearly a growing trend, many are giving up their plain old phones and instead using only wireless units. For the first time in history, the study reported, the number of land-based telephones in service in the United States is declining.

That is expected to pick up more momentum today when consumers, under a federal law, can keep their home land line and existing mobile phone numbers even when they switch carriers.

"For some of the most enthusiastic tech users in America, the wireline telephone may be going the way of the transistor radio," said John Horrigan, principal author of the report and a Pew senior research specialist.

The study says 31 percent of Americans can be considered highly tech-savvy. These Americans all use the Internet, are very likely to have cell phones, are more likely than other Americans to have personal digital assistants and are more likely to have engaged in what the Pew project calls "leading-edge technology behaviors," such as paying for online content and connecting to the Net wirelessly.

From his handheld Palm organizer to his always-on cell phone to his two computers at work and his iMac at home, Steve Klein fits the bill in every department.

"All I know is my life and time is too important to be dependent on inefficient communications," says Klein, who works for an Ann Arbor marketing company.

At home, Klein says he has gone from watching two or three hours of television a week a few years ago to virtually none now.

He's canceled his magazine subscriptions, too. He gets his news almost exclusively via computer, through news alerts he has subscribed to from various online services and from checking several Web sites throughout the day. "I get what I am interested in," he says.

What is important to Klein is being in touch. To that end, he is an incessant, admittedly compulsive e-mail user. When his wife, Hanna, gave birth to his son, Aharon, "the delivery room had a computer terminal right there, and I was e-mailing updates to my coworkers and our relatives, right there, 3 feet away from my wife."

And what was she doing? She was on the cell phone talking to friends right up to the time the baby came.

The Pew study said the tech elite break down into three distinct subgroups:

• The young tech elite, whose average age is 22, are the most advanced tech users. They embrace the Net's interactive aspects, such as content creation through Web sites and Web logs.

• Wired Generation Xers. Their average age is 36, and they're most likely to pay for online content.

• Wired baby boomers, whose average age is 52. They do lots of transactions and work-related research online.

  On average, people in the tech elite spend $169 a month on their broadband connections, premium cable or satellite TV service, tech gear such as cell phones and Internet content, the Pew project reported. That is 36 percent more than the national average.

  Take Dearborn native Bob Boyle. Except for the Red Wings and University of Michigan football games, he says he watches no television. He disconnected his landline telephone a year ago and says he would never go back. Almost all his news comes from online sources.

  "The Internet as a whole may contain a flood of information, but most of that never reaches me," says Boyle, 41, a Web designer based in New York City. "I do this for control -- what I want, when I want it."

  The Pew study, based on a survey taken late last year of 2,038 adults, underscored the importance of control to many of the most active technophiles. Many sophisticated tech users -- particularly young adults -- have high expectations for the service they get from their Internet supplier. Nearly half of the most tech-savvy young adults said they have switched Internet service providers at least once.

[KillTime]

That's me alright: web surf at night with a little tv next to my pc switching between fox, discovery and the cartoon channel.

[Rebelbase]

Indeed. The liberal media/liberal adgenda is losing ground with the increase in internet users, which makes me wonder when the "battle for the internet" will begin.

[GailA]

I am by no means a 'tech elite', I watch less and less of the idiot box every day. I choose to turn off their wall to wall SMUT programing. What I do watch is FNC, History, Discovery and HGTV, at least I'm learning something useful. Simply Quilts is my favorite HGTV program. I get my news from FR, FNC and talk radio.

[PGalt]

Good post. Collapse of propaganda bump.

[backhoe]

I watch less and less of the idiot box every day. I choose to turn off their wall to wall SMUT programing. What I do watch is FNC, History, Discovery and HGTV, at least I'm learning something useful. Simply Quilts is my favorite HGTV program. I get my news from FR, FNC and talk radio...

Absolutely- as you noted, there are some bright spots on TV, but I mostly think of it as a garbage disposal stuck in reverse-- you turn it on, and the contents of the sewer below your house spews forth...

TV is really good at projecting images, but short on providing context and content.

I liken it to a beautiful, still river, a mile wide but only a few inches deep-- no matter how far you travel over it, it is always pretty... and shallow.

[Fresh Wind]

TV Land and Fox News. The only reason to own a TV.

[leadpenny]

I have my favorites too; most of C-SPAN, Imus in the Morning, Breaking News on MSNBC, Seinfeld re-runs and some others, but I truly believe "they" made the internet for me and it is probably the last thing that could be pried from my cold dead hands.

[Forgiven_Sinner]

Slow, but right. This trend started about five years ago; at least that's when I started noticing web heads preferring the net over TV.

Hmmm. Same time as the Lewinsky scandal and Clinton's impeachment. Coincidence? That's also when I started lurking on FR. (Jan/Feb 1998). (My register date is Mar 2000).

To fill in one of the data points from this article: I'm a baby-boomer with a T3+ connection at work and a 56K connection at home. I play a lot of solitaire while I surf ;). I plan to ditch the dial up this year and get DSL when my MSN contract runs out.

I don't have cable TV--I don't like the expense and I don't want to watch more TV than I do now--about 7 hours a week, mostly news and commentary. I definitely would give up TV before I give up the internet--that's been true for at least five years. I've been on the internet since 1993 at work, 1995 or 1996 at home.

I might go wireless at home for a LAN once I get DSL. I'll have to make sure it's closed to interlopers. I'll also buy Zone Alarm Pro to defend against intruders.

I don't carry a cell phone--I don't want to be reached at times. My wife does.

I have used the instant messaging features--it's as good or better than a phone.

I have used internet conferencing at work compbined with a phone conference--that's better than our video conferencing system.

[Moose4]

I very, very rarely watch TV anymore. I'll listen to what my wife has on while she's making jewelry, but even then, she'll just use it as background noise, and as often as not will have classical music tuned in on the digital cable's Music Choice.

When I do watch TV, it's almost always documentary channels like History Channel, TLC, Discovery, or Court TV. I admit to having a weak spot for Animal Planet's animal cop shows, and my primary guilty pleasure, "Cops." Don't ask me why, I just like it. Maybe because there's so much stuff on "Cops" to laugh at. And maybe I'll watch some sports too.

The drek that the big networks shovel doesn't interest me anymore. At all. The Web and places like FR are much better.

}:-)4

[Malsua]

>>Wired Generation Xers. Their average age is 36, and they're most likely to pay for online content. <<

Heh. They've got me pegged.

36, and I pay about 125/month for DSL, Cell, 4 Online game subscriptions and an a website.

As to the question, Computer or TV? TV of course, since I have a TV tuner card so I can do both with the computer ;)

[Prodigal Son]

I got rid of television over ten years ago. Never logged onto the internet until 1998.

The internet is definitely better.

[an amused spectator]

I do that now, but only so I can burn the tape without watching it.

LOL! Best line I've seen in the last month. :-)

[randita]

makes me wonder when the "battle for the internet" will begin.

Up to now, the elite media has been ridiculing internet sources as unreliable, bogus, not to be trusted. Their propoganda hasn't worked, so next they'll probably resort to some convoluted application of the Fairness in Media law.

Heaven only knows how that would be applied to the internet, but liberals will find a silly way to do it, like saddling ISP's with the burden of abiding by certain lists of sites they will allow their customers access to.

With Dean touting himself as the "internet candidate", it would seem pretty silly for him to turn around and start bashing it. That would be fun to see.

[Prodigal Son]

This trend is one of the reasons we are winning the culture war.

Yep.