How much time do you spend watching television each day? Do you have a favorite show that you absolutely cannot miss? Most of us are so busy with our schedules and other miscellaneous extra-curricular activities, that we’re lucky if we have five minutes to ourselves at the end of the day. Now, how much time would you say you spend on the Internet? Ah- forget the Internet- how much time do you spend on or near a computer? It seems like no matter how hard we try, it is simply too difficult to tear ourselves away from a computer screen versus the television.

It’s like an Addiction

Hi, my name is Janelle, and I’m addicted to the Internet. Up until a few years ago, I still had time for television and the movies occasionally, but then AOL Instant messenger came along, followed by a handful of email accounts, online newspapers, quizzes, myspace and facebook, to name a few. How do I spend my time on the Internet nowadays? Well, I would venture to guess that my time spent on the Internet is similar to how other people who are addicted to it spend their time: checking my email account(s), doing work-related research and writing, chatting with friends via facebook and/or AIM and keeping up with the latest news and celebrity gossip. It’s only within the past couple of years that my Internet addiction has gotten out of hand. I quit myspace and thought that it would get better, and for a little while, it did. But now it seems like I’ve fallen off of the wagon. I’m not the only one though. I have dozens of friends who do nothing (it would seem) but sit on their computers all day looking up useless information. Even my boyfriend is addicted. We actually had a discussion about how the Internet is affecting our lives and decided that we would limit our time on the computer when we were around one another. The other night, I was reading for a few hours while he was on the Internet THE ENTIRE TIME. It turned out, that while surfing, he had found this online program that allows you to start a virtual library, so he was feverishly cataloging all of our books. As, you can see, that plan has been working really well.

The Impact as Seen Around the World

It’s no secret that the number of people who use the Internet has gone up significantly around the world. For instance, if you go to this web site, you can see for yourself. It is estimated that there are now over 1 billion people who use the Internet worldwide. Since 2000 up until now, North America has seen a 125.2% increase in the number of people using the Internet. For 2008, the percentage of Internet users by region can be seen as follows:

• Asia: 37.8%
• Europe: 27.6%
• North America: 18.0%
• Latin America/Caribbean: 9.4%
• Africa: 3.3%
• Middle East: 27.6%
  
• Oceana/Australia: 1.4%

If you’ve got a story about using the Internet, please share it with the rest of us!
For more information on Internet Marketing, contact Create Business Growth today!