A survey from Tata Commications has revealed some slightly worrying statistics about the average Brit and their relationship with the Internet. The global report, called ‘Connected World II’, captured 9,417 responses from around the world including 1,770 internet users in the UK – to better understand how users engage and connect with the Internet.
1) The survey revealed that half of the people in the UK surveyed don’t fully understand how the Internet works, despite having an emotional attachment to it.
2) 62% of Brits feel angry and anxious, or have a fear of missing out (FOMO) when unable to get online.
3) 13% of surveyed UK internet users admit they couldn’t go an hour without being connected.
4) Over two thirds of UK respondents (70%) incorrectly think the World Wide Web (invented by Sir Tim Berners-Lee) and the Internet are one and the same.
5) The British sense of fair play extends online with 72% stating that the Internet belonged to everyone (as opposed to the correct answer of ‘each individual country’), second only to Germany, where 80% gave the same response.
6) As a result, Britons are using the Internet more than ever before, with 37% of 15-35 year olds using the Internet for six or more hours each day. When it comes to millennials, 5% of 15-25 year olds said they couldn’t survive even fifteen minutes without an internet connection.
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7) Surprisingly, wearable technology was low on the list of innovations people are most looking forward to (15%), with downloads at light speed (35%) a clear leader; and smart cities (17%) proving more inspirational.
8) Interestingly, smart cities are seen as a bigger priority in the UK (17%) than in France and Germany; where only 10% of French respondents and 7% of Germans see smart cities as the most inspirational opportunity in the next three to five years.
9) On a positive note, the cloud, once considered a business-to-business technology, is well and truly mainstream with 74% of UK respondents able to correctly state that information in the cloud is actually held in data centres
