GeekSugar

Girl Power(Cord): More Girls Using Computers Than Boys

GeekSugar — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:00:41 -0800

We must be doing something right, ladies, because a new study shows that there are more young girls using computers than young boys.

Much like the study from over a year ago that revealed more women online than men, it showed that not only are more girls using computers, but their mothers are providing more assistance than fathers. New technology in the household looks like it's the provenance of the females in the house!

I wonder how these stats will affect the learning of the two genders in the future; what does our outnumbering of boys on the Internet and computers say about us?

Source

Texting, Internet and Cell Phones Keep Families in Sync

GeekSugar — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 07:30:34 -0700

Today's families are much more likely than any other household types to have cellphones and use the Internet, according to a study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The phone survey of 2,252 adults, between Dec. of 2007 and Jan. of 2008, also shows that families use those technologies to stay in touch with each other throughout the day. The study also found:

About 89 percent of married (or partnered) parents with children own multiple cellphones.
Sixty-six percent have high-speed broadband Internet connections in their homes (compared with a national average of 52 percent).
Seventy percent of couples in which both partners have cellphones contact each other daily just to say hello, 64 percent contact each other to coordinate schedules, and 42 percent of parents contact their children daily using a cellphone.

Do you think smartphones and the Internet keep your family closer?

Source

Study Shows Internet Activity Can Strengthen the Aging Brain

GeekSugar — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 09:01:01 -0700

It may be time for older folks to stop telling us the computer is rotting our brains. A new study on Internet use and the human brain shows Google searches and spending time online may help stimulate and improve the minds of middle-aged and older Americans.

Researchers at UCLA studied 24 healthy volunteers ages 55 to 76. Half were experienced Googlers, and the others had no Internet savvy. They performed Internet searches and book-reading tasks while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, which recorded the brain-circuitry changes they were experiencing.

All of the volunteers showed significant brain activity during the reading portion, which stimulated brain regions that control language, reading, memory and visual abilities. When they tested web use only those who had previous Internet experience registered extensive activity.

Source

Teens Think E-mail Is Sooo 1999

GeekSugar — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 05:00:01 -0700

I have a sister in college who I probably e-mail three to five times a day, but it's a rare, rare occasion that she checks her e-mail before we talk on the phone or text each other. While that may be most predictive of our insane phone bills, it also points to something communications analysts have known for a while: Teens don't like e-mail. According to News.com,
more and more, social networks are playing a bigger role than the cell phone.

In the last six to nine months, teens in the United States have taken to text messaging in numbers that rival usage in Europe and Asia. According to market research firm JupiterResearch, 80 percent of teens with cell phones regularly use text messaging.

I can't decide if I think that age group's lack of interest has to do with the fact that social networking sites like TeamSugar, MySpace and Facebook are so popular, or the fact that most teens aren't at the computer as much as adults like myself, who sit in front of one all day and have easy access to e-mail. Do you still use e-mail or do you think it's antiquated in the face of so many other social networks?

Source

Have You Ever Made A Video Telephone Call?

GeekSugar — Mon, 18 Jun 2007 11:00:13 -0700

With the popularity of webcams and video chatting online you'd think the market for residential video telephony services would be dead, but analysts say the industry will likely break a billion dollar barrier for the first time this year.

They predict an increasing number of households as well as individual cell phone users around the world will start making video phone calls. According to a recent study, residential video telephony is part of a worldwide push by carriers to create new IP-enabled services for consumers. The study notes that consumers of wireline services and mobile telecommunications services are adopting the video telephone
service along with other IP-enabled services such as fixed-mobile convergence services, file sharing services, streaming services, location-based services and presence-based services.

I've used Skype and iChat for computer-based video chats and meetings, but never ventured into the landline video chat world so these numbers sound outrageous to me. Of course, the analysts do not agree. "I believe everyone is underestimating the impact that video telephone services will have on our lives," says Robert Rosenberg, of Insight Research. "We are visual - not auditory - beings. My guess is that among all the IP services being rolled out worldwide, real time video phone could be the service that has the biggest impact on our daily lives."
Source

Who Talks More On Cell Phones: Men Or Women?

GeekSugar — Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:30:01 -0700

A recent AT&T study found that women are catching up with men when it comes to cell phone usage, but men still spend more time on their cell phones than women.

I happen to think this study, which was part of a yearly Father's Day poll commissioned by AT&T, is at the very least skewed. Most of my female friends would stay on their cell phones all day if they could - while my father, boyfriend and male friends seem to only reach for the phone to plan, check in and check out.

According to the survey, which polled approximately 1,000 users, men average 458 minutes of monthly wireless phone usage, and women average 453 minutes. I think it's safe to assume the reason some people talk on the phone is related to personality type, not gender.

Parents Turn To Kids For Tech Support

GeekSugar — Tue, 29 May 2007 10:00:06 -0700

Warning: This is one of those, "yeah, I already knew that" stories. Like so many other people from my generation, I dread the late night phone calls from my mom who just remembered she fell in love with a jacket at J.Crew and wants me to go online and find it for her. Not because she doesn't have the ability to go search the website herself, but because she figures I am already online and just a click away.

For whatever reason, it seems to be a universal truth that even young students are the ones helping out their parents and using technology on their behalf. According to a recent USA Today article:

Three-quarters of students between the ages of 8 and 14 say they have completed an online transaction.
Nearly one-fourth of the 6,000 young respondents say they shop with their parents' credit cards, 26 percent use gift cards, and 8 percent say they use their own credit card.
Almost half say they help with electronic transactions because their parents are "clueless" online.
One-third help because their parents don't have enough time to shop.

Study Finds More Spam Mail But Fewer Complaints

GeekSugar — Fri, 25 May 2007 09:00:52 -0700

Apparently, spam e-mails are on the rise, but people don't seem to be complaining much. According to USA Today, thirty-seven percent of U.S. e-mail users say they are getting more junk in their personal e-mail accounts, and 29 percent see an increase in their work accounts. The Pew Internet and American Life Project found that about half say they have not noticed a change, while 28 percent of Internet users now say that spam is not a problem at all, up from 16 percent in June 2003. Here's more:

"It's maybe starting to become part of life online," said Susannah Fox, associate director with Pew. "Once something's part of life online, people feel that they should just stop complaining about it and move on, even though people are still annoyed by it."

Study Shows At Least 25 Countries Block Websites

GeekSugar — Wed, 23 May 2007 13:00:15 -0700

When friends tell me stories about their companies blocking their access to websites like geeksugar or to MSN chat or gmail, I am shocked with disbelief. Sure some of those sites might hinder productivity, but is it really fair to limit your employees' web access?

Could you imagine living in a country where websites are continually blocked for political, social or various other reasons? According to USA Today, a study shows that at least 25 countries are censoring internet content. Apparently, China, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Tunisia and Vietnam had the most extensive filters for political sites. Iran, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen had the strictest social-filtering practices, blocking pornography, gambling and gay and lesbian sites.

The study comes from the OpenNet Initiative group which is comprised of researchers from Cambridge, the University of Oxford, Harvard University and the University of Toronto, who detail censorship in specific countries. This latest study was its attempt to compare filtering worldwide, although North American or Western European countries were not included.

How do you feel about this? Do you think internet censorship can be justified, whether in the workplace or country specific, or is this a total infringement to a person's rights and freedoms?

Wi-fi Health Warnings And Fears Called 'Unproven'

GeekSugar — Wed, 23 May 2007 08:01:16 -0700

When it comes to technology, our health and and studies, the results are often as conclusive and on the mark as our local meteorologists. They offer warnings, note potential rain clouds, but never seem to be on the mark. Two weeks ago I read that WiFis dangerous for kids, a few months ago I read about a woman allergic to wifi, cell phones and electromagnetic fields and even considered buying wireless blocking paint, for my bedroom. Now the BBC is reporting that no evidence to suggest a link between the use of wi-fi and damage to health. Here's more:

"Wi-fi seems unlikely to pose any risk to health," said Professor Lawrie Challis, of Nottingham University. Prof Challis, chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research (MTHR) programme management committee, said: "Wi-fi exposures are usually very small - the transmitters are low power and some distance from the body.

The article goes on to note, that transmitters are near the body when a laptop is on a person's lap. According to Challis, we should encourage young children to use their laptops on tables instead of their laps for this reason.