November 2012
From the Time Use Survey on the Media Use (2)
Emi Morofuji / Chie Sekine
Based on the Time Use Survey on the Media Use that was carried out in March 2012, the authors report the present state of the use of the Internet, whose services keep diversifying.
Regarding the use of the Internet by terminal device, mobile phones (including smart phones) are much used by young people, especially by young women. In terms of the time slot, mobile phones are well used not only during evening hours but also during the day. Personal computers showed less generation gap in the usage than mobile phones, but men in their 20s and 30s are heaviest users, and the number of personal computer users increases among men in their 40s and 50s on Sunday.
What they do on the Internet was also surveyed. Emails and websites are used widely, ranging from teenagers to those in their 60s. SNSs, videos, online games are well used especially among young people. It is shown that different terminals are used for different purposes: emails and SNSs are often used on the mobile while websites and videos are often used on personal computers.
As to what people do while using the Internet (overlapped activities), overlapping with TV viewing marked the longest hours, notably among men and women in their 20s. Regarding the time slot when TV viewing and Internet usage overlap, both men and women in their 20s do so during evening hours most, and, at the peak of the overlap, overlapped viewing accounts for 20 to 40% of TV-viewing. When asked what they do on the Internet as an overlapped activity, while men in their 20s cited websites and emails most, women in their 20s cited emails and other various activities such as websites, SNSs, videos, etc.