Is internet more important than sex?

Jul 24 2012
By Fred Hoot -

internet addiction infographic Is internet more important than sex?

When you see a headline that says Internet access is more important than sex, you really have to wonder if the headline is just for attracting attention or is revealing a hidden, taboo topic. Well, by the looks of the data collected in a survey by Broadband Expert it appears to be a combination of both.

Yes, both men and women rated Internet access greater than Sex. I see some cross-marketing opportunities here. Imagine a TV ad that says “Both women and men agree Internet access, like the Road Runner ACME ISP Corp., is better than sex and watching TV! Find your best deals at Broadband Expert today.”

After the need for Internet access is met, the men want sex followed by TV/movies. Women, on the other hand, TV/movies followed by sex after their Internet desires were fulfilled.

Women are spending slightly more time online at home than men, with 48 % of women spending more than 26 hours a week using the Internet. 46% of men spend more than 26 hours a week availing themselves of the fruits of the Internet. Still, that is close enough to say around half of the men and women responding to the Broadband Expert survey spend 26 or more hours a week online.

If you take the grouping of people to include more than 16 hours a week Internet usage that comes to more than three-quarters of the responders do spend that much time online while at home. That works out to over a month straight spent using the Internet every year. At 26 hours, that means close to two months of online usage! Can you imagine 1/6th of your total time is spent using the Internet? Imagine 4 hours a day, every day, online!

So overall, both men and women rated Internet access the most important over all other items on the survey. Yes it beats out adult beverages and coffee and tea. Yes, it looks like alcohol has slipped to a new low, with people seeking entertainment online instead. Using the Internet even surpasses gaming and sporting events according to Broadband Expert.
Watching TV and movies rates fairly well, but is still lower on the list than Internet access. And yes, all those gadgets and tools like the smartphones and tablets we access the internet with are listed behind the basic ability to get online.

As far as what men and women think the other sex would sacrifice to stay connected, we can come to a couple of conclusions. First, men don’t know women (Shocker!). The only thing the men came close to predicting was women’s preference to clothes and shopping. Come to think of it, one out of seven correct may not be that bad. After all, men are often accused of not knowing anything about women.

The women faired a lot better. They hit two of men’s priorities correctly: sex and sporting events. So, men, please take note; women expect sex and sports to be high on our list – take advantage of this fact.

Another interesting fact is in the shopping category. More women are interested in shopping online than men are. I would expect women to be a lot more interested in shopping at the brick and mortar stores than men. After all, personal experience tells me women love the stores more than online. Maybe I do not know the right women or else they are hiding their online habits from me. 10.4% of women’s time is spent shopping on line.

I would also expect men to be more interested in online shopping. Saving gas is one advantage, but the biggest reason I would think men could use is the endless hours spent going from store to store with their significant others. It’s easier to search and order online than it is to drive down to a store, hope the gift is in stock then waiting in line to check out. 9.8% of the men’s Internet time is spent shopping.

According to the Broadband Expert survey, the heaviest use of the home Internet connection is listed as work and email usage. Over one-third of the women’s Internet time is spent on work and email. Men claim that 31.8% of their on-line time is used up by work and email.

News is the next big area where time online is spent. Men spend a greater percentage of their online time checking up on the news with 14.1% and the women at 12.3%.
Educational pursuits and research is the next highest online consumer of Internet time. Nearly 13% of the women’s time and just under 12.5% of the men’s time occupies personal improvement through expanding their knowledge.

Social networking is high up on the list, not that I have any experience spending countless hours commenting on all my friends’ posts and pictures. Women admit to spending 13.1% of their time on the Internet in social networking. Men confess to a mere 11.6% of their time on Facebook and other social sites. It is only a 1.5% difference, but it still looks like the women talk more online, if only by a slight amount.

Watching TV and movies online is also right up there with online shopping. 11.6% of the men’s time is spent with this couch-potato-related activity. Women spend 10.4% of their time on the couch or keyboard watching movies and TV.

I would figure that gaming would be up there. I know many friends that spend huge amounts of time with online games, particularly a whole family whose members are WOW fanatics. If you are into WOW, you probably have been beaten by them – they are that exceptional. However, gaming doesn’t show as high in the survey as I would have expected.

Men do lead this category, which I did not expect because of my gaming friends. The mother kicks butt in the gaming department and beats the rest of the family on a consistent basis. Backed up by data from Broadband Expert’s survey, women spend on average 7.3% of the online time playing games. The men spend just 8.7% of their on-line time playing games.
What would we do without the Internet? I cannot even imagine.

For the full results of the survey click here.

Do you value Internet access more than sex? Tell us your stories on the comments section.

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