28 May 2008
The technological advances that people hoped for ten years have now become a reality according to latest consumer research commissioned by BT.
The research, titled '21st Century Life Index Report’, claims that Brits are now 'living in the technological utopia envisaged in 1998'.
A cross-section of the British public were interviewed and compared against results from a survey conducted ten years ago. The findings showed that the functionality that people in the 1998 has now become the Internet norm, with users seeing benefits in their day to day lives as a result.
In 1998, 44% of people online used the Internet to regularly stay in touch with friends and family, ten years on and that figure has risen to 74%. However these advances in technology still don’t mean that people prefer communicating this way. Results of the research showed that the preferred method of communication is still face to face, with 68% preferring face to face contact in 2008, compared to 51% in 1998.
In 1998, 46% of the UK wanted instant access to travel timetables, in the last three months, 43% of consumers say they have accessed exactly that, going online and downloading the travel information they needed.
Other ‘desirables’ in 1998 were the ability to shop lone (36%), access information (44%) reflect how modern Internet users are using the Internet. Many say that we now heavily rely on the Internet, with the proportion of the UK spending more than five hours on the Internet a week increasing from 24% in 1998, to 57% in 2008.
Commenting on the research findings, Alnoor Samji, Director, Ipsos MORI, noted:
The results from BT’s 21st Century Life Index Report reveal how consumers have steadily shifted their communications habits over the last ten years from exclusively voice and mobile, to email on the move - as well as much greater interaction with social networking sites - to help them stay in touch with friends and family.
Consumers are telling us that instead of carrying around lots of different devices, what many really want is one communications tool that allows consumers to send emails, instant message, make calls, access social networking sites and information online while out and about.
So looking at these current trends and how they might unfold over the next five years, could this spell the death of text messaging as we know it?
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