The Families
Feature stories reflecting the Internet's impact on study participants' lives.

The Diaries
Statistics reported by people taking part in the project.

The Researchers
Janna Q. Anderson of the Elon School of Communications and 25 student researchers compiled this study.

The Neighborhood
Details about the town of Elon, N.C. and the neighborhood in this study.

Elon University

During this study week, Jan. 12-19, 2001, many of the family members who participated in this research agreed to keep diaries of Internet use, logging data on their online activities.

Top activities for adults and minors

Full activities list

Study participants

• 65 people in 25 families filled out the diaries
  • 25 men
  • 23 women
  • 10 girls and 7 boys under age 18
• Median adult age: 43; Median child age: 12
• Adult age range: 31-68
• Children age range: 7-17

Access method

• 22 families use modem
• 3 families use cable/high-speed

Location of use

• home: 360 Internet sessions
• work: 244 Internet sessions
• other/unreported location: 46 Internet sessions

Time of day

• 6 a.m. - 9 a.m.: 109 sessions
• 9 a.m. - noon: 122 sessions
• noon - 3 p.m.: 118 sessions
• 3 p.m. - 6 p.m.: 132 sessions
• 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.: 98 sessions
• 9 p.m. - bedtime: 60 sessions

Time spent online

• Web: 14,072 minutes
  • 216 minutes per person
  • 31 minutes per person each day
• E-mail: 8,728 minutes
  • 134 minutes per person
  • 19 minutes per person each day
• Instant Messenger: 1,056 minutes
  • 16 minutes per person
  • 2 minutes per person each day
• Total Internet Time: 23,856 minutes
  • 367 minutes per person
  • 52 minutes per person each day

E-mail

• used by 52 of 65 participants during this week
• E-mail reading/sending sessions: 635
  • 10 per person
  • 1.4 sessions per day
• E-mails received: 2,508
  • 39 per person
  • 5.5 per person each day
• E-mails read: 2,053
  • 32 per person
  • 4.5 per person each day
• E-mails sent: 841
  • 13 per person
  • 2 per person each day
• Time reading e-mail: 5,224 minutes
  • 80 minutes per person
  • 11 minutes per person each day
• Time sending e-mail: 3,504 minutes
  • 54 minutes per person
  • 7.7 minutes per person each day

World Wide Web

• Used by 61 of 65 participants during this week
• Web work time: 3,788 minutes in 89 sessions
  • 43 minutes per session
• Web information time: 3,417 minutes in 161 sessions
  • 21 minutes per session
• Web fun time: 2,431 minutes in 83 sessions
  • 29 minutes per session
• Web news time: 1,902 minutes in 126 sessions
  • 15 minutes per session
• Web other time: 1,458 in 81 sessions
  • 18 minutes per session
• Web shopping time: 1,076 in 60 sessions
  • 18 minutes per session

Instant Messaging

• used by 12 of 65 participants during this week
• 6 adults and 6 children
• 1,056 minutes in 47 sessions
• 22 minutes per session