CyberAtlas
The Web Marketer's Guide to Online Facts

This article can be found online at:
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/big_picture/demographics/article/0,1323,5901_
339721,00.html 

	America's Young Adults Turn to Net
	
	The Internet is quickly displacing older media such as television
and newspapers as the prime source of important information for America's
youngest adults, according to a survey by the Round Table Group. 
	The nationwide telephone poll of 1,014 households commissioned by
the group and conducted by Opinion Research Corp. International, found that
67 percent of Americans ages 18 to 24 live in households that use the
Internet to gather key information, compared to a nationwide average of just
46 percent who use the Internet for that purpose. 
	Among those young adult users, 59 percent say that their household
currently receives more "useful information" from the Internet than from
newspapers. Fifty-three percent say they receive more "useful information"
from the Internet than from television. 
	"The huge conversion of Generation X from newspaper and television
consumption to Internet usage helps explain the urgency of huge media deals
such as the recent AOL/Time Warner merger," said Russ Rosenweig, CEO of the
Round Table Group. "Traditional media has a right to feel fearful of these
rapidly changing demographics. The changeover is happening much more rapidly
than anyone predicted." 
	According to the study, 84 percent of 18 to 24-year-old Internet
users say that their household is more likely to use the Internet to
retrieve useful information than they are to go to the public library. And
when they need the answer to a specific question, 68 percent of those
households are more likely to consult the Internet than turn to a newspaper,
and 67 percent are more likely to consult the Internet than rely on
television. 
	Seventy-three percent of Internet households in the 18 to 24 age
group say they have used the Internet to retrieve work-related information.
Forty-seven percent of that age group say that someone in their household
would probably be interested in taking an educational course over the
Internet for work or for other purposes. 
	The study found the slowest groups to log onto the Internet have
been the elderly, the poor, and those with the least education. In American
households with incomes under $25,000, 68 percent do not use the Internet,
and 67 percent of Americans who have not completed high school do not have
Internet users in their households. Of those aged 65 and higher, 70 percent
live in households that do not use the Internet. 
	But according to the survey, Internet usage by white, black, and
Hispanic households is approximately equal, with only 43 percent of white
households and 43 percent of black households lacking Internet access,
compared to 38 percent of Hispanic households that lack Internet access.
April 12, 2000



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