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| Summary of Findings |
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| Summary of SIP Adult Survey 1999 |
| Overall Internet use |
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Singapore has a high level of Internet penetration rate. |
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About 46% of the adults, aged 18 and older, were Internet users. This fares high in comparison with other developed countries. |
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| Internet Usage |
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E-mail and information search are the two most popular Internet activities, while e-commerce transactions are not common. |
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On the average, users had about 2.7 years of Internet experience and spent about 11 hours a week on the Internet -- of which about 3 hours were on e-mail, 2.6 hours on information search for work/school, and 1.8 hours on information search for personal reasons. |
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Internet use is equally common at home and at work, and is reported to increase productivity. On the average, users reported spending 5.5 hours per week in using the Internet, while school/office use was 5.2 hours per week. In addition, 70% of the users said that Internet use led to greater productivity. |
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| Digital Divide |
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The digital divide in Singapore occurs along gender, age, marital status, and social-economic lines. |
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There were more users than non-users among males (56% vs. 44%), younger people, singles (72% vs. 28%) and people of higher socio-economic status (SES) in terms of education, income and housing. |
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| E-Commerce |
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Although 45% of the Internet users had browsed for goods and services, less than 11% had actually made transactions. The main concerns about online transaction were security, privacy, and the difficulty in assessing product quality. |
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| Perception of the Internet |
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Users hold more favourable attitudes and perceptions toward the Internet than do non-user. |
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Users felt that the Internet was easy to use (84%), important (83%), useful (79%), convenient (79%), and interesting (74%). |
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Only a third or less of the non-users perceived it the same way. Users also said that the Internet was useful for staying informed (80%), convenient for commercial activities (79%), good for society (74%), great for entertainment (72%), and an important skill for getting a good job (62%). The percentages of non-users who agreed with these five items were 70%, 49%, 64%, 50%, and 39% respectively. |
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| Political Empowerment |
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Users and non-users, alike, do not believe that the Internet will lead to greater political empowerment. |
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Only 14% of them thought that people could have more political power, and 15%-18% said people could have more say about what the Government does. |
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31% and 25% of the users and non-users respectively said that public officials would care more about what people thought. However, 40% and 24% of the users and non-users respectively said that with Internet use, people could better understand politics. |
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| Internet Regulation |
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An overwhelming 92% of the respondents, users and non-users alike, said that the individuals should bear the responsibility of regulating Internet content. |
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About 76% also said that the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should be responsible. |
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About two-thirds of the respondents identified a central body (comprising representatives from the public, government and ISPs), family, and government to be responsible parties in regulating the content on the Internet. |
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About 69% of all the respondents said that Internet content providers should have a rating system to help the public make choices. |
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66% would like to see that ISPs offer filter options to screen out undesirable content. |
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About 64% users and 52% non-users said that they were concerned about online pornographic materials. |
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More than half of the users also expressed concerns over undesirable racial (57%), political (52%), and religious (52%) content. The proportions of non-users who were concerned over these three kinds of online materials were lower -- at 40%, 41% and 42% respectively. |
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| Family and Social Interaction |
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About half of the users reported that with the use of the Internet, they had made more friends, while 13% said otherwise. |
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41% and 45% of users said they had more contact with people who shared their hobbies and professions respectively. In contrast, only 17% and 8% of users said they had less contact with these two groups of people as a result of Internet use. |
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Internet use however had not increased users' contact with people with similar political interests or religions. |
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Half or more of the respondents from both groups reported having relatively positive experience with members of their family. They talked to each other, listened to each other, shared ideas and opinions, and were patient with each other. |
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Overall, there was no difference between the two groups in terms of family communication. |
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To most users, time spent with family remains almost the same. Among users, 59% said Internet use had not changed the amount of time they spent with their families, as compared with 24% who reported a decrease in time spent with family. |
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| Working Life |
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Internet use has not led to a widespread practice of bringing work home and working from home. Only about 10% of the users said because of the Internet, they had been bringing work home to do at night. Furthermore, the same percentage of users said that Internet use had allowed them to work from home. |
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Compared to non-users, Internet users have a lower level of alienation. Users were less likely to feel helpless, think they could not rely on others, and believe others did not care. |
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| Working Life |
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Majority of the users and non-users regarded newspapers, television, and radio as important sources. |
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More than 70% of the users also said that Internet was important. |
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Overall, users rated newspaper as the most important, followed by television, the Internet, radio, and magazines. The pattern was also similar for non-users, except the Internet came in last. |
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The proportions of Internet users were consistently higher than or similar to the non-users in choosing various mass media as sources of information. |
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The trend is reversed when it came to interpersonal communication. For the non-users, 72% considered friends as important sources of information, while 80% said the same about family members and friends. The figures for users were 65% and 66% respectively. |
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About three-quarters of all users and non-users said that they trusted news from newspaper, television and radio. |
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Online news, however, fared less well -- only 60% users and 47% non-users trusted it. |
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| For the detailed report, click here to download. |
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