Faster Internet connections to the home have enabled more people to post a variety of content online.
A report by John Horrigan of the Pew Internet & American Life project attributed the increase in US-consumer generated content online to the rise in broadband adoption.
A 40 percent jump in home broadband from March 2005 to March 2006 means 84 million Americans now have some type of high-speed access to the Internet. Horrigan’s report noted that newcomers to the Internet have opted for faster connections rather than dialup to start their online lives.
Price appears to be a factor in choosing which fast service to use. DSL on average has been a cheaper service than cable (monthly charge of $32 to $41), and that likely reflects in DSL’s share of home broadband (50 percent) over cable (41 percent).
When the Pew project asked respondents about posting content online, they found 42 percent of home broadband users have uploaded something to the Internet. That would correspond to 31 million people adding to a personal blog or webpage, adding content to a work or private group effort, or sharing self-created content like videos.
It’s not the tech elites driving the increase in online content either, no matter what the blogebrities think. Pew’s study found that households earning under $50,000 per year were slightly more likely than higher-income households to put content online, 46 to 41 percent.
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David Utter is a staff writer for Murdok covering technology and business.
