Thirty per cent of life tasks are now conducted online according to an analysis by TalkTalk, the phone, broadband and mobile company.
The firm quizzed more than 20,000 people about their online habits and found that in homes with a broadband connection almost one third of everything we do – from communication to entertainment to shopping to life management – is now conducted online.
According to TalkTalk’s figures, the internet is now used in broadband homes to solve at least six out of every ten problems, from finding a plumber to researching an illness.
Eighty six per cent of people in broadband homes use internet banking at least once a year while 96 per cent of people make at least one online purchase annually, suggesting the wariness we once had about online transactions has all but disappeared.
The internet has also transformed our leisure time. In the past year 38 per cent of people in homes with broadband have downloaded at least one movie and 54 per cent have listened to music online.
“We are turning to the internet to meet more and more of our life needs, from paying a bill or finding a life mate,” said Tristia Clarke, Commercial Director of TalkTalk.
“That’s why it is so important that we move at full speed to get the 8.7 million people in this country who are not currently online into the digital era. The gap between online and offline Britain may already be more socially and economically significant than the north/south divide.”
This week TalkTalk staff are donating an hour of their time to teach basic internet skills to people who, for whatever reason, have not yet joined the internet revolution. It’s all part of Go ON Give an Hour, the biggest campaign ever devoted to helping millions more people in the UK get online.