Chances are, if you're reading this post, you are probably online more than an hour a day. That's considered "frequent use" by Gallup. I can safely say that I am a frequent internet user. In fact, if I wasn't online for more than an hour, I'd consider it an unusual day. In Gallup's polling, the number of Americans who spend more than an hour on the internet has reached 48% of the population:
Americans' frequent use of the Internet has almost doubled over the last five years; 48% now report using the Internet more than one hour per day compared to 26% in 2002.Gallup reports that those gaps are shrinking, too. Here's the trend line:
Large education, income, and age gaps continue to exist in terms of Internet usage. Post-graduates, those making more than $75,000 per year, and those under age 30 are the most frequent users of the Internet, with more than 6 out of 10 in each group saying they use the Internet more than one hour per day. At the same time, the least educated, least affluent, and oldest Americans are those who least often use the Internet, with about one-third or fewer in each group saying they use the Internet more than one hour per day. Smaller, though noteworthy, gaps also exist between men and women, and the employed versus the non-working.
