October isn’t all about pumpkins and Squid Game – it is also when International Internet Day happens (29th October), an event that celebrates the first ever ‘internet transmission’ between two computers (L and O) that took place on this day in 1969.
And given the global outrage that ensued after the outage of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp earlier in the month, the internet is definitely something people care about – so perhaps it’s time to celebrate its positives this year!
Zen Internet has rounded up latest stats from UK-wide research as well as its own network data, highlighting just how much we love the internet and some staggering increases in how long we spend streaming, scrolling and staring at screens!
Steve Warburton from zen.co.uk says: “While 2020 saw an unprecedented increase in Internet consumption (more than 75 per cent among Zen customers), figures illustrate usage has continued to rise in 2021. Latest data shows internet usage in the UK has increased by another 9 per cent this year, reinforcing the trend that we’re continuing to do more online. Peak usage is now almost 150 per cent more than just two years ago according to our data.”
It was reported that consumers bought more than 21 million new connected devices during the first lockdown. “And thousands of people are continuing to work from home,” adds Warburton, “as well as maintaining many streaming, gaming and video calling habits brought on by lockdowns, which all go towards explaining our continued reliance on the internet for work, socialising and play!”
- It’s estimated the average time spent online per day per user is just over three and a half hours (on smartphones, tablets and computers)! This is likely to increase further during the winter months with consumers snuggling in their homes earlier during the dark evening.
- In August 2021 Zen Internet recorded its biggest peak of the year, at the start of the English Football League Championship where traffic was 11 per cent higher than average.
- An average of 1 hour 21 minutes a day is also reported as how long is spent watching online services such as Netflix and BBC iPlayer on TVs.
- By the end of 2020, about 94 per cent of UK homes had internet access, up from about 89% in 2019.
So is all this time online good for us? More stats from Zen show that in the past 18 months millions of Brits used the internet to enhance their skills.
59 per cent of Brits learnt a new skill, with 44 per cent turning to the internet to kick start a new hobby. The most popular new thing learned in the past 18 months is baking and cooking, with just under a quarter of people pulling out their pinny to get cooking and baking for the first time. A massive 15 per cent of people started gaming, a similar number to those who introduced a new talent in arts and crafts. One in 10 began learning a new language.
These figures show just how beneficial reliable access to the internet can be – with a previous Zen study showing that we actually spent more time with family and friends via get-togethers over the internet, compared to the amount of time spent with them face-to-face before the pandemic.
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