Lazos digitales y lazos sociales

Destaca Marshall Sponder, vía Smart Mobs, en Membership in virtual communities just as important as real-world social ties -Digital Future Project, que los lazos que las personas establecen las comunidades virtuales son tan fuertes como los que establecen «en la otra vida». Viene a cuento de un informe elaborado en el Center for the Digital Future de la USC Annenberg School en la Universidad de South California, uno de esos lugares de referencia en lo social/digital (nuestras referencias son nada más y nada menos que Howard Rheingold y Manuel Castells).

El informe en cuestión, 2007 Digital Future Report, es de pago, pero puedes echar un vistazo a sus principales conclusiones a través de este PDF (son sólo 8 páginas). Se trata de un interesante estudio que va por su sexta edición.

The six years of longitudinal research comprise an absolutely unique data base that completely captures broadband at home, the wireless Internet, on-line media, user-generated content and, now, social networking.

Hay que decir que estamos hablando de los americanos del norte, esos que tiran chimpunes en Irak y que, al mismo tiempo, parecen ser la punta de lanza de la investigación tecnológica del planeta. Pero si el mundo sigue como hasta ahora, importando sus costumbres de vida, quizá te pueda interesar saber sus principales conclusiones. Up to you.

El informe está organizado en una serie de conclusiones -normalmente con datos estadísticos detrás- en torno a estas cuestiones:

• Online communities: a catalyst for connection and activism
• Internet users: reaching out across the Web
• The Internet and social links

Además, a partir de los datos derivados del carácter plurianual del informe, también muestran conclusiones respeto a otros temas concretos. Pero no te preocupes, que ya me lo he leído, y puedo decirte que dicen -mi resumen personal- lo que puedes leer a continuación.

Relaciones y activismo dentro/fuera de Internet, como es lógico, se autorrefuerzan

• Involvement in online communities leads to offline actions. More than one-fifth of online community members (20.3 percent) take actions offline at least once a year that are related to their online community.
• Participation in online communities leads to social activism.
• A significant majority of members of online communities (56.6 percent) log into their community at least once a day.

Vida social, no pasa nada, no nos hacemos autistas

• Internet users are finding growing numbers of online friends, as well as friends they first met online and then met in person. Internet users report having met an average of 4.65 friends online whom they have never met in person. Internet users report an average of 1.6 friends met in person whom they originally met online — more than double the number when the Digital Future Project began in 2000.

Consumo de tiempo, ten cuidado

• Does the Internet change the amount of time spent with friends and family face-to-face? — While large percentages of Internet users say that going online increases contact with family and friends, almost all users report that the Internet has no effect on the time spent with close friends or family face-to-face.

Hombres y mujeres, otra vez son ya más las mujeres

• Men and women online — For the first time the percentage of women going online was higherthan the number of men.

Confianza en la información que muestra Internet, un ejercicio de inteligencia

• Information on the Internet: is it reliable and accurate? — The number of users who believethat most or all of the information on the Internet is reliable and accurate grew sharply over 2005, reversing a three-year decline. Well over half of users (55.2 percent) say that most or all of the information online is reliable and accurate – up from 48.8 percent in 2005, but still below the peak in 2001 (55 percent).

Internet vs. televisión, ahí le andan

• Internet use and its effect on time spent watching TV – More than one-third of Internet users(35.5 percent) say that they spend less time watching TV since they began using the Internet — a modest increase over 2002.

Compras en Internet, con cuidado pero siguen creciendo

• Internet purchasing: who is buying online? — The number of online purchasers rose to its highest level in the history of the study (51.1 percent).

Ni web 2.0 ni leches, correo electrónico

• Do you use e -mail? — About 90 percent of Internet users use e-mail — statistically the same as in 2005. Given that 77.6 percent of all Americans go online, and 89.8 percent of those users have email, this means that 69.7 percent of Americans now use e-mail.

Internet en el trabajo, gestiónalo antes de que te gestione

• Internet users who go online at work say that they actively use the Internet for work an average of 7.8 hours each week — an increase from 5.6 hours in 2005, and better than three hours more per week over when the question was first asked in 2001.
• Does the Internet make workers more productive? — The percentage of users who say the Internet at work makes them more productive has continued to increase overall for all six years of this study.
• Almost 70 percent of users who have access to the Internet at work (69.7 percent) say that by going online at work their productivity has improved somewhat or a lot, an increase from 66.3 percent in 2005, 65.8 percent in 2003, 64.5 percent in 2002, 60.9 percent in 2001, and 56.7 percent in 2000.
• While large numbers of respondents continue to report that they use the Internet for personal reasons at work, only 1.5 percent of those who go online at their jobs say their productivity has worsened because of Internet access at work.

Por todo esto, la pregunta que acompaña al informe es retórica: Online World As Important to Internet Users as Real World? Tú, ¿qué crees?

Antonio Fumero, con quien es evidente que comparto cierta pasión por Smart Mobs, también hace un buen resumen en Virtualmente real.

La imagen es de Flickr.

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