Internet: Behavioral Impacts -- How Online impacts the lives of users -- Survey

Methodology
Results

This section presents information about the survey of America Online subscribers who provided valuable input for this study. Accordingly, the logistics of the survey including how the participants were selected and the method of gathering participant responses are discussed. The results of the survey are also included.

Methodology

The objective of this survey was to determine how on-line subscribers are using the Internet and how these users are being impacted by their use of on-line. The survey was not intended to prove any theory or hypothesis.

The survey upon which this study is partially based was conducted from November, 1998 until November, 1999. Survey participants (270 in total) were all adults selected at random from the America Online directory and from America Online chat room rosters. Some participants referred others to the survey, some of whom were not America Online users, who then completed the form. It is assumed that the on-line habits of, and impacts on, America Online users were substantially similar to those of Internet users who did not subscribe to America Online.

The survey form itself was posted on the Internet at http://members.tripod.com/martyman53/survey/. This form was an HTML form that participants completed on-line and automatically forwarded to the survey coordinator by Email through Response-O-Matic. Responses to the form along with resulting percentages and averages were compiled and calculated using Microsoft Excel.

If a completed form contained the Email address of a form that had been submitted earlier, the latter form was discarded in an effort to help ensure that participants responded just once to the survey. Responses of minors were excluded from the survey. Participants were given the option of providing or not providing their Email address. The objective of obtaining Email addresses was for sending the results of the survey back to the participants.

Although this survey forms the basis upon which many of the findings in this study are based, many of the findings and supplementary analysis are also based on other resources pertaining to the topics contained within this study. As such, the survey itself was used in many cases to affirm or shed additional light on information that was obtained from other sources.

Results

Demographics	Options	Pct/Ave
Email Address	--	--
State	State table	--
Age (years)	--	44.3
Gender	Female Male No Response	73.2% 24.2% 2.6%
Married years	--	13.4
Minor children living at home	No Yes No Response	36.3% 57.4% 6.3%
Employment Status	Unemployed Employed Part-time Employed Full-time No Response	18.5% 13.0% 63.7% 4.8%
Education Level	Less than high school High school/GED High school + college Associate degree Bachelor's degree Bachelor's plus additional Masters Masters plus additional Doctorate or more No response	0.7% 21.9% 40.4% 7.4% 10.4% 7.8% 3.3% 3.3% 1.1% 3.7%
Survey Question	Options	Pct/Ave
1. Which version of AOL are you using?	AOL 2.0 AOL 3.0 AOL 4.0 Other	0.0% 16.3% 83.3% 0.4%
2. How long have you been on-line?	--	20.5
3. How many hours per month do you spend on-line?	--	82.2
4. How much do you spend each month to be on-line?	--	$35.40
5. Which days of the week do you spend most of your time on-line (pick up to four)?	Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday	14.0% 11.9% 11.5% 12.4% 17.3% 16.4% 16.5%
6. During your busiest days on-line, which times do you spend most of your time on-line (pick up to four)?	12:00AM - 12:59AM 1:00AM - 1:59AM 2:00AM - 2:59AM 3:00AM - 3:59AM 4:00AM - 4:59AM 5:00AM - 5:59AM 6:00AM - 6:59AM 7:00AM - 7:59AM 8:00AM - 8:59AM 9:00AM - 9:59AM 10:00AM - 10:59AM 11:00AM - 11:59AM 12:00PM - 12:59PM 1:00PM - 1:59PM 2:00PM - 2:59PM 3:00PM - 3:59PM 4:00PM - 4:59PM 5:00PM - 5:59PM 6:00PM - 6:59PM 7:00PM - 7:59PM 8:00PM - 8:59PM 9:00PM - 9:59PM 10:00PM - 10:59PM 11:00PM - 11:59PM	4.2% 2.9% 1.2% 0.9% 0.9% 1.5% 2.4% 4.6% 5.4% 5.8% 3.8% 2.5% 1.9% 2.1% 1.5% 1.6% 2.6% 2.7% 4.3% 8.8% 11.9% 13.8% 12.5% 6.9%
7. Which on-line activity do you spend the most time doing?	Chat rooms Email Games Surfing the Internet IMs Other No response	30.0% 21.5% 2.2% 9.3% 29.6% 6.3% 1.1%
8. What is your most important reason for being on-line (pick up to four)?	Business/work Download software Education/learning/explore Entertain/amuse self Entertain/amuse others Family Friends (socializing) Get help Give help Hobbies New/weather/sports Sex Shop Sweetheart/romance No response Other	5.5% 3.6% 11.0% 20.5% 5.3% 6.6% 24.0% 2.5% 2.4% 2.5% 4.7% 0.9% 1.7% 6.2% 0.1% 2.6%
9. How has on-line impacted your life in general ?	Very Favorably Favorably No Impact Unfavorably Very Unfavorably	23.0% 50.4% 20.7% 5.2% 0.7%
10. How has on-line impacted your relationship with spouse or significant other?	Very Favorably Favorably No Impact Unfavorably Very Unfavorably	3.3% 9.6% 66.3% 17.8% 3.0%
11. How has on-line impacted relationship with other family members?	Very favorably Favorably No impact Unfavorably Very unfavorably	3.3% 17.8% 67.4% 10.7% 0.7%
12. How has on-line impacted your work life?	Very favorably Favorably No impact Unfavorably Very unfavorably	3.7% 14.4% 78.1% 3.3% 0.4%
13. How has on-line impacted your social life besides family?	Very favorably Favorably No impact Unfavorably Very unfavorably	7.4% 28.9% 60.0% 3.7% 0.0%
14. How has on-line impacted your health (mental or physical)?	Very favorably Favorably No impact Unfavorably Very unfavorably	7.8% 20.7% 67.0% 3.7% 0.7%
15. Do you believe you are addicted to on-line?	No Yes No response Don't know	48.1% 31.9% 10.0% 10.0%
16. Which friends do you spend most of your time with?	On-line In person Same	40.4% 22.2% 37.4%
17. Which on-line friends do you spend most of your time with?	Younger Older Same	11.1% 3.0% 85.9%
18. Are most of your on-line friends the same gender or opposite gender from you?	Opposite gender Same gender Equal	39.6% 10.7% 49.6%
19. How is your on-line personality compared to your in-person personality?	More extroverted More introverted Same	22.2% 1.1% 76.7%
20. How many people are on your buddy list, if any?	--	32.9
21. How many screen names do you use regularly?	--	1.5
22. How many people from on-line have you met in-person?	--	11.2
23. How many people from on-line have become in-person friends?	--	3.0
24. How many in person gatherings have you attended with on-line people?	--	.7
25. Have you married anyone that you met on-line?	No Yes No response	94.0% 3.0% 3.0%
26. Have you dated anyone that you met on-line?	No Yes No response	63.3% 31.9% 4.8%
27. Have you ever been in love with someone on-line?	No Yes No response	44.4% 49.6% 5.9%
28. Does your spouse or significant other use on-line regularly?	No Yes No response	46.3% 31.9% 21.9%
29. Do you object to your spouses/significant others use of on-line?	No Yes No response	57.0% 3.0% 40.0%
30. If on-line has impacted your marriage unfavorably, what has been the most serious impact?	Greater distance Disagreements/fights Affair(s) Marital counseling Separation Divorce No unfavorable impact Not married No response Other consequence	11.1% 4.8% 4.1% 0.4% 2.6% 1.1% 42.2% 10.4% 20.4% 3.0%
31. What is the most annoying aspect of your life on-line?	Busy phone line Getting booted Forced advertisements Forced dls/upgrades Inappropriate language Junk mail No privacy at home/work Objections: family/friends On-line rel. too superficial System inefficiencies Too expensive Hard to access activity Too many IMs Viruses No response Other	4.4% 21.1% 4.4% 0.0% 1.1% 44.4% 0.7% 3.0% 1.1% 8.1% 0.4% 1.1% 0.4% 1.9% 3.7% 4.1%
32. Do you consider having cybersex with someone other than one's significant other or spouse to be cheating?	No Yes Don't know No response	32.3% 44.8% 8.2% 14.7%
33. Which of the following statements do you believe is most true regarding on-line and unhappy marriages?	On-line fills void Hurts weak marriages Hurts all marriages Doesn't hurt marriages None of the above	37.0% 29.3% 9.3% 8.1% 16.3%
34. Which of the following statements is most true regarding purely on-line relationships?	Not real Real but superficial Real and meaningful Other/none	7.4% 17.8% 55.6% 19.3%
35. Do you have an on-line profile?	No Yes No response	15.9% 80.7% 3.3%
36. Do you have a personal web page?	No Yes No response	84.4% 10.4% 5.2%
37. Have you ever been attacked, harrassed, molested, threatened, kidnapped, assaulted or in anyway harmed off-line by anyone you met on-line?	No Yes No response	91.5% 6.7% 1.9%

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