How have computers impacted your life?
I'm taking a survey for a paper I'm writing for my anthropology class. The question I'm looking to answer is "How have computers impacted your life?"
Following are 10 questions. If you have 5 minutes, please help me out by responding with your answers. Acceptable choices are listed. I'm hoping to get at least 20 responses, so the more that answer the merrier.
Thanks in advance! At the end I'll tabulate the statistics and post the results.
--
Age
\t0-19
\t20-29
\t30-39
\t40-49
\t50-59
\t60-69
\t70+
Sex
\tMale
\tFemale
Questions
How much time do you spend on the computer per day?
0-30 min
31-60 min
1-2 hours
2-4 hours
4 hours+
If you no longer owned a computer, would your life change significatnly?
yes
no
What is the primary use of your computer?
email/internet/im
word processing
programming/db
media/photos/video/music
gaming
other
How have computers impacted your relationship with family?
improved
worsened
no effect
How have computers impacted your relationship with with friends?
improved
worsened
no effect
If you were offered enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, but you could never use a computer again, would you take the money?
yes
no
Would you take the money if you could still use computers?
yes
no
Do you encourage others to use computers?
yes
no
Do you use a computer at work?
yes
no
don?t work
How old were you when you first started using computers?
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70+
Following are 10 questions. If you have 5 minutes, please help me out by responding with your answers. Acceptable choices are listed. I'm hoping to get at least 20 responses, so the more that answer the merrier.
Thanks in advance! At the end I'll tabulate the statistics and post the results.
--
Age
\t0-19
\t20-29
\t30-39
\t40-49
\t50-59
\t60-69
\t70+
Sex
\tMale
\tFemale
Questions
How much time do you spend on the computer per day?
0-30 min
31-60 min
1-2 hours
2-4 hours
4 hours+
If you no longer owned a computer, would your life change significatnly?
yes
no
What is the primary use of your computer?
email/internet/im
word processing
programming/db
media/photos/video/music
gaming
other
How have computers impacted your relationship with family?
improved
worsened
no effect
How have computers impacted your relationship with with friends?
improved
worsened
no effect
If you were offered enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, but you could never use a computer again, would you take the money?
yes
no
Would you take the money if you could still use computers?
yes
no
Do you encourage others to use computers?
yes
no
Do you use a computer at work?
yes
no
don?t work
How old were you when you first started using computers?
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70+
Comments
reg
Age
Er...cannot compute!! But I'm interested in 18+ age groups.
Sex
Yes please!
Questions
How much time do you spend on the computer per day?
0-30 min
31-60 min
1-2 hours
2-4 hours
4 hours+
What has this got to do with sex??
If you no longer owned a computer, would your life change significatnly?
I'm losing interest really fast.......this sounded so promising at the start...
What is the primary use of your computer?
I'd be sssshocked! if my life changed significatnly. What's the significance of this question by the way?
How have computers impacted your relationship with with friends?
I have no friends.
If you were offered enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, but you could never use a computer again, would you take the money?
yes
no
Money, power......when are we going to get to the third?
Would you take the money if you could still use computers?
Is this a form of IT favours??
Do you encourage others to use computers?
I encourage others *wink* *wink*
Do you use a computer at work?
I don't work....
How old were you when you first started using computers?
When I started using Windows, I was 18years old. A year on Windows, I aged and became 63. When Windows 2000 came out I was then 45 and then when I upgraded to Windows XP, I was 69. Some people who started using Windows were 98. But after a year or two of crashes, they then hit stalemate. A friend of mine is 25 and recommended I switch to a powerbook which I did buy. Returning to an Apple powerbook, I have the zest of a Tiger 10.43 instead of the mess of an XP. On the last count, I was 2000 but now I'm back to 24
How did I do, huh? Huh?!
Originally posted by Ra
[B]
Age
\t0-19
\t20-29
\t30-39
\t40-49
\t50-59
\t60-69
\t70+
20-29 (21)
Sex
\tMale
\tFemale
Female
How much time do you spend on the computer per day?
0-30 min
31-60 min
1-2 hours
2-4 hours
4 hours+
4 hours+
If you no longer owned a computer, would your life change significatnly?
yes
no
YES! I don't know what I'd do...
What is the primary use of your computer?
email/internet/im
word processing
programming/db
media/photos/video/music
gaming
other
Email/Internet/IM
How have computers impacted your relationship with family?
improved
worsened
no effect
Yep. We email all the time.
How have computers impacted your relationship with with friends?
improved
worsened
no effect
Improved! I've made more friends online than I ever would on my own. Sad, really. :P
If you were offered enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, but you could never use a computer again, would you take the money?
yes
no
HELL no!
Would you take the money if you could still use computers?
yes
no
Absolutely.
Do you encourage others to use computers?
yes
no
Yes.. preferably Macs.
Do you use a computer at work?
yes
no
don?t work
The only computer I use is a cash register.
How old were you when you first started using computers?
0-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
50-59
60-69
70+
0-19
Age
\t0-19 \t(11)
\t20-29\t(21)
\t30-39\t(8)
\t40-49\t(6)
\t50-59\t(1)
\t60-69\t(1)
\t70+\t\t(0)
Sex
\tMale\t\t(39)
\tFemale\t(9)
How have computers impacted your life?
Questions
How much time do you spend on the computer per day?
0-30 min\t(0)
31-60 min\t(2)
1-2 hours\t(5)
2-4 hours\t(11)
4 hours+\t(30)
If you no longer owned a computer, would your life change significatnly?
yes\t(41)
no\t(7)
What is the primary use of your computer?
email/internet/im\t(13)
word processing\t(0)
programming/db\t(1)
media/photos/video/music\t(4)
gaming\t(1)
other\t(8)
more than 1 of the above\t(21)
How have computers impacted your relationship with family?
improved\t(18)
worsened\t(1)
no effect\t(29)
How have computers impacted your relationship with friends?
improved\t(32)
worsened\t(3)
no effect\t(13)
If you were offered enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, but you could never use a computer again, would you take the money?
yes\t(21)
no\t(27)
Would you take the money if you could still use computers?
yes\t(43)
no\t(5)
Do you encourage others to use computers?
yes\t(40)
no\t(8)
Do you use a computer at work?
yes\t(31)
no\t(3)
don?t work\t(14)
How old were you when you first started using computers?
0-19 \t(41)
20-29\t(4)
30-39\t(3)
40-49\t(0)
50-59\t(0)
60-69\t(0)
70+ \t(0)
\t0-19
Sex
\tMale
Questions
How much time do you spend on the computer per day?
4 hours+
If you no longer owned a computer, would your life change significatnly?
yes
What is the primary use of your computer?
email/internet/im
media/photos/video/music
gaming
How have computers impacted your relationship with family?
no effect
How have computers impacted your relationship with with friends?
improved
If you were offered enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, but you could never use a computer again, would you take the money?
no
Would you take the money if you could still use computers?
yes
Do you encourage others to use computers?
yes
Do you use a computer at work?
don?t work
How old were you when you first started using computers?
0-19
A total of 48 people answered the survey - 39 male, 9 female.
Ages:
? 0-19: 11
? 20-29: 21
? 30-39: 8
? 40-49: 6
? 50-59: 1
? 60-69: 1
? 70+: 0
Usage per day:
4+ hours: 62.5%
2-4 hours: 22.9%
1-2 hours: 10.2%
30-60 minutes: 4.16%
0-30 minutes: 0%
Based on answers to different questions I was able to classify all users as either casual, passionate, or intermediate users of computers.
? Passionate: 29%
? Casual: 12.5%
? Intermediate: 58.5%
Distribution of passionate users:
? age 0-29: 71%
? age 30+: 29%
Distribution of older users:
? Passionate: 25%
? Casual/Intermediate: 75%
Here's a relevant excerpt from my paper:
Twenty-two people responded that they would not give up computers for money, but if they could have the money and continue using computers, then they would take it. This is roughly 46% of respondents. These people therefore like money (most people do), but value computers even more. Of this 46%, thirteen spend four or more hours on computers per day. This is 27% of respondents. Of this 27%, eleven encourage others to use computers. This is 23% of all respondents. So 23% of respondents comprise a group that would not trade computers for money, spends 4 or more hours per day on computers, and encourages others to use computers as well. Thus, this 23% is highly passionate about computing. There are also three respondents who spend 4 or more hours per day on computers, encourage others to use computers, but would not accept the money based on principle. It is safe say these three respondents are passionate about computing as well. This makes for a total of 14 respondents, or 29%, who are passionate about computing.
Of the thirty-four non-passionate computer users, seven said their lives would not significantly change if they no longer used computers. This is 14.5% of respondents. Of those 14.5%, six would give up computers for money. This is 12.5%. These are clearly casual users. The remaining twenty-eight respondents, or 58.5%, that are neither passionate nor casual I have labeled intermediate users.
Of the fourteen respondents who are passionate about computers, ten are younger than thirty. This means that 71% of passionate users are young. Also worth noting, is that of the same fourteen respondents, twelve started using computers before the age of twenty. So 85.7% of respondents who are passionate about computers began using them at an early age.
Out of all respondents, sixteen are age thirty or older. Of these sixteen, only four are passionate users. Thus 75% of respondents age thirty or older are casual or intermediate computer users.
and some relevant conclusions:
So what can we make of all this data? The results of my survey show a couple of things. First, the distribution of users according to the levels of their computer usage follows a near bell curve if taken on an ordinal scale. This implies that the majority of computer users are indeed intermediate users, and that both casual and passionate users represent two extremes. Computers are thus not penetrated into our lifestyle to the amount that they are completely necessary. However, they are penetrated into our lifestyle enough that they are extremely useful. Second, the distribution of passionate users is skewed towards younger individuals and individuals who learned to use computers at a younger age. Thus there is a trend toward computers becoming more integrated into our lifestyle since younger individuals are more likely to be heavy computer users. Third, although most older users are more of the casual or intermediate type, there are still some older, passionate users of computers. This shows that even individuals who may have not grown up with computers are becoming passionate users as well.
and lastly, problems I noticed with my survey:
In conducting my research, I discovered many flaws in my survey. First, I assumed that everyone owns a computer. Obviously this is not the case. I was able to circumvent the issue by only surveying those people who actually own a computer, but to truly answer my question of how computers have affected people?s lives, I should not have done that. Second, the questions about improving or worsening relations with family and friends did not show any obvious trend as I had hoped, and ultimately proved wasted since I was unable to use them. Third, my sample of forty-eight people is hardly representative of any real-world population. Thus, although my survey produced some great results, it can hardly be trusted as representative of any real-world trends.
Thanks again to everyone who participated!
Golly, young people who are passionate about computing? Wonder if I'm in that lovely group...
Thanks for this, Ra. Well done!