Emailing has held on to the top spot as the most common internet activity in Britain, despite the continued rise of social media, a survey has found.<\/p>\n
Some 82% of adults say they most often use the web for email, the Office for National Statistics reported – a rise of three percentage points since 2016.<\/p>\n
Finding information on goods and services came second, at 71%, followed by social networking at 66%.<\/p>\n
Internet use on mobile devices also continues to rise, the ONS said.<\/p>\n
The findings are part of an\u00a0annual survey of internet habits,\u00a0covering more than 2,500 respondents across Great Britain, which found people were using the internet more for a range of everyday activities.<\/p>\n
It suggested the proportion reading online news or magazines this year was up four percentage points at 64%, and had tripled since 2007.<\/p>\n
Internet banking was found to have increased from 30% to 63% in the last decade, and social networking had gained 21 points since 2011 – the earliest year for which figures are available.<\/p>\n
The proportion of adults who shopped online was static at 77%, with sports goods and clothes still the most common purchases.<\/p>\n
However, there was a tail-off among some groups of shoppers.<\/p>\n
The proportion of those aged 25 to 34 shopping online fell from 93% in 2016 to 89% this year.<\/p>\n
And there was a slight drop among 55 to 64-year-olds to 75%, although that is still about a third more than in 2008.<\/p>\n
Overall, the number of households that has an internet connection has hit 90% after a 1% rise since 2016.<\/p>\n
Of those without access, about two-thirds said they felt the internet was “not useful or interesting”, although a fifth said they lacked the skills to use the web.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the proportion of all adults accessing the internet via mobiles was 78% – up from 75% in 2016 and 61% in 2011.<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Emailing has held on to the top spot as the most common internet activity in Britain, despite the continued rise of social media, a survey has found. Some 82% of adults say they most often use the web for email, the Office for National Statistics reported – a rise of three percentage points since 2016. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":341903,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[106,1],"tags":[9877,9878,798],"yoast_head":"\n