Survey says people will expect and do more online

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When the Internet became mainstream in the late 1990s, people marveled at being able to electronically send mail and surf the World Wide Web.

Today, the Internet provides people with endless possibilities to communicate, perform tasks and provide entertainment.

In a recent survey conducted by Rogers Cable Communications Inc., results showed that Canadians are taking advantage of that fact as Internet usage has significantly increased.

Max Valiquette, a digital culture expert, researcher and president of the Toronto-based company Youthography, helped formulate the survey as well as analyze the results that were released earlier this year.

Valiquette's work is focused on all things current and digital, studying the ways Canadians are using the Internet. He said the findings indicate we are not just using the Internet more often but are using it for activities we would normally do offline.

"Canadians are changing the way they interact with their culture, changing the way they interact with their lives based on new trends in digital culture and how that facilitates things they want to do," he said.

Valiquette said the past 10 years have probably seen the single biggest shift in media habits this country has ever seen.

"This is essentially because of the rise of wireless to some extent and the rise of the Internet to a very great extent," he said.

People aren't just paying bills online but using social networking sites more than ever before, photo sharing, watching movies and television, reading magazines and making online video calls.

"What it speaks to is the size of the relationship we have now with the Internet as something that enables us to do all the things we used to do offline and bring it all online ... having one place to go that delivers a rich media experience," he said.

But are people doing all these things online because it's more convenient or is technology progressively taking away from traditional socializing methods? Valiquette said the results actually translate into Canadians using the Internet to be more, not less social; actually broadening their social realm.

"Fifty years ago I can imagine that people said, 'I can't believe you'd rather pick up the phone instead of going to talk to someone one-on-one'," he said.

Let's say a bad storm is preventing you from getting together with your friends for your weekly bridge game, you could still play with friends online, Valiquette said. What if you need a recipe? You could go to a cookbook or to an online food site where there are hundreds of recipes as well as video demonstrations.

Valiquette said the simple answer is that Canadians are choosing to do these things online because they can, and in most cases, such as sharing photos, it's simply more efficient.

"When you think of how complex it is to take a standard picture, have (them) developed, make copies, send those copies out to people ... now I take digital photos and just upload them onto Facebook...," he said.

The purpose of the survey, Valiquette said, was to find out what's important to Canadians in the digital landscape, what the Internet is currently doing for them, and what they expect it may do for them in the future.

"The fact that about half of Canadians expect to be watching live TV on a computer in the next year is an absolutely amazing thing," he said. "Half of Canadians expect to make video calls from a computer within the next year, that's also amazing."

In the future, Valiquette said Internet usage will only increase.

A perfect example is Facebook.

Two years ago, no one could have predicted it would become as popular as it has. He said someone will come up with something else, add on more application possibilities and it will also turn out to be popular.

Other day-to-day tasks will also increase, as well as other online activities such as watching movies. He said where the television has traditionally been the centre of people's media experience, people will soon want to get broadband into their living room.

"The centre of your media world tended to be grouped around your television and then maybe an amp and a stereo in the living room, now the centre of the media world will end up being a high-speed, broadband Internet connection that's right in your living room," that could do that and more, he said.

He also predicts Internet usage will migrate into a larger segment of the population. Valiquette said he can't give an exact indication of what's in store, but he did say: "there's plenty more to come with even more of our offline experience coming online," especially with websites offering more as the demand increases.

"Canadian are using the Internet to do things in an easier fashion than they used to but also Canadians are doing things they couldn't do but doing them online," he said.