Mike Berman’s Washington Watch

April 28, 2012 8:59 AM

Odds and Ends

At least for some, if not many, the ubiquity and ease of email has changed what we would have thought of as the practice of social graces. Before email, when a response or circumstance dictated a response, a visit, a phone call, and/or a handwritten or typed note, would be the order of the day. This is no longer the case. Increasingly, an email replaces other methods of communication. There are some arguments in favor of this new way of communicating in these circumstances. It is easier, less complicated, and, since you can do it right away, you are more likely not to forget. On the other hand, it dumbs-down human interaction.



At the end of February there were an estimated 2,459,646,000 internet users in the world. Estimates of the number of Facebook users range from 850 to 900 million. The estimates of the Twitter universe range from 300 – 462 million.



Americans engage with cable, satellite and broadcast TV about 147 hours per month. They also spend about 4.5 hours viewing online video per month. The group that only watches free broadcast TV continues to drop, hitting a low of 5.8 million households in the 3rd quarter of 2011. [WP 4/24]

It’s no surprise that self-described over-use of cell phones , the internet and social media is age-driven. Adults were asked whether they personally spend too much time using particular devices or outlets. Here are the percentages of each age group that say they spend too much time on that device/outlet.

  18-29 30-49 50-64 65+
Using Internet 59 27 15 5
Cell phones or smart phones 58 30 13 8
Using social media sites 48 17 8 1
[Gallup]




Return to Home Page