I’m just digging into the USC Annenberg Digital Future Project’s 123-page report, “Surveying the digital Future,” which comes out tomorrow, but here are a few highlights that caught my eye:
-The political affiliations of Internet users are significantly to the left of non-users. 32% of Internet users identify as somewhat or very liberal, compared to 25% of non-users. Likewise, while 40% of non-users identify as somewhat or very conservative, 36% of net users do so.
-The percentage of Internet users who agree with the statement that “by using the Internet, people like you can better understand politics” has gone up from 52% in 2003 to more than 60% today.
-Likewise, the percentage of net users who agree that using the Internet can help “people like you … have more political power” has jumped from 27% in 2003 to about 40% today.
None of these trends are surprising, but it’s always useful to have some fresh data points.
UPDATE: The funny thing is how much attention this survey is getting for one unrelated data point that they leaked out in advance: the fact that people surf the net while in the bathroom!