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| Summary of Findings |
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| Summary of SIP Adult Survey 2000 |
| Overall Computer and Internet use |
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56.1% of adult Singaporeans used a computer. |
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43.7% of adult Singaporeans were Internet users. |
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The top three reasons for not using the Internet were: did not know how to or confused by the technology, no time, and no interest. |
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33.6% of the non-users said they might use the Internet within the next year, while 49% said it would be unlikely that they would do so. |
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| Internet Usage |
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Users had an average of 3 years of online experience. |
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They spent an average of 13.8 hours per week online. |
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They logged on 8.2 hours per week from home and 5.2 hours per week from work/school. |
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E-mail was the most popular online activity for users, at 5.6 hours per week. |
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Information search came in second, at 4.5 hours per week. |
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Online chat/discussion and online entertainment were same for both activities at 1.6 hours per week. |
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Online transaction was limited to only 10% of the users. On the average, this group spent half an hour per week on transaction. |
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83% used only English while online. A total of 13.7%, 1.4% and 1.6% said they also used Chinese, Malay and Tamil respectively. |
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| Digital Divide |
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Digital divide was present. Users tended to be males, young, and of higher socio-economic status in terms of education, income and housing type. |
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| E-Commerce |
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Singaporeans did search for product and services online. The top three categories were: education products and services, computer software, and computer hardware. |
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Online purchases were not common · only 7.8% of the users had done so within the past 12 months. Most purchases were made through local websites. |
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Other types of online transactions were also rare · only 6.9% had conducted non-purchase related transactions. |
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| Family Interaction and Activities |
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Compared to non-users, users dined slightly less frequently with their families daily. |
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Users reported that they spent about 27 hours a week socialising with their families. This figure was lower than non-users· 32.6 hours per week |
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Majority perceived no change in family interaction · whether online or face-to-face. Only a small proportion reported more interaction due to Internet use. A negligible number claimed reduced interaction. |
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| Social Interaction and social contacts |
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E-mail was a popular tool for keeping in touch: 84% used it to communicate with friends, and 52.9% with colleagues. |
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More users reported an increase than those who reported a decrease in social contact. Specifically, 34.3%, 14.2%, 8.9% and 28.6% reported increase in contacts with people whom they shared hobbies, political interest, religion, and profession respectively. Those who reported less contact ranged between 3.7% and 4.6%. |
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| Working Life |
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On the positive note, users reported that the Internet brought more flexibility (41.3%), productivity (49.4%), and creativity (47.3%). However, it also increased work or study load (29.2%), and stress (19.6%) for some. Most people, however, reported no change in all these aspects. |
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Internet use had not facilitated telecommuting · only 3% of Internet users who were working spent some time doing their work at home during normal office hours. Even then, most would only do so for not more than 3 days a week. |
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20% of Internet users who were working brought work home at night because of the Internet. Again, they would only do so for 3 days or less per week. |
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| Perception of the Internet |
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Users and non-users differed in their perception of the Internet. More than 85% of the users thought that the Internet was important, useful, interesting, convenient, and not difficult to use. However, on the same aspects, only 26% to 40% of the non-users concurred, respectively. |
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Interestingly, an overwhelming number of non-users said they were never embarrassed for not using the Internet and that they had not been excluded from the communication network among friends. The majority of them also said friends, clients, and business associates had no trouble contacting them. More than 80% said they were not disadvantaged at work or school. |
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Users and non-users shared the belief that the Internet would not increase their political empowerment. |
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| Who is responsible for regulation? |
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Most users and non-users thought that the regulation of the Internet was a job for multiple parties. The top three parties mentioned by the respondents were individuals (mentioned by 86.3%), the government (69.7%), and the Internet service providers (68.3%). |
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| Media Use |
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21.3%, 18.5% and 11.4% of the users said that their consumption of television programs, radio broadcast, and newspaper content, respectively, had decreased since they started using the Internet. Only 5% to 7% reported an increase. |
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For users, newspapers were the most important information source, followed by the Internet, television, interpersonal contacts, and radio. For non-users, the order was: newspapers, television, interpersonal contacts, radio, and the Internet. |
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Many users used the Internet to search for news in general (66.4%) and information related to special interests and hobbies (74.1%). |
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31.4% of them used the Internet to search for policy and politics related information, while 39.5% used it to search for finance and business materials. |
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Local websites were more popularly used than foreign ones. |
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| For the detailed report, click here to download. |
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