Overall time spent online remains static

(Credit: Forrester via North American Technographics Benchmark Surveys)

The amount of time people spend online has not increased since last year, according to a report released by Forrester on Monday. Perhaps more interesting, however, is the reason for the trend: people's online behavior has changed.

"Engagement with the online channel has deepened," writes Forrester analyst Jackie Anderson. "Web users are becoming savvier and are better multi-taskers. Many know exactly where they want to go when they log in."

The report, titled "Consumer Behavior Online: A 2009 Deep Dive," shows that overall time spent on the Internet has remained at 12 hours per week. This bucks the trend from 2004 to 2007, when Internet use grew significantly.

Broadband growth has also slowed, according to the report. In the last year, broadband adoption grew only 6 percent, but that's still 6.5 million new households. Now, the majority of households with Internet run broadband, and more than 50 percent of people have been using the Web for at least 10 years. "The Internet starts to more closely resemble a traditional media channel," writes Anderson.

However, people are still watching TV at the same rate (13 hours per week) regardless of being able to stream their favorite shows online. And, while 25 percent of people online watch full-length TV shows on the Internet, those same people also maintain 13 hours per week of TV.

The one trend that has grown in the last year is social networking. Not a huge surprise as we've seen Twitter explode and Facebook grow ever stronger. Still, only one third of online users are members of a social network, but that's a 15 percent increase from 2007.

Forrester has been tracking Internet use since 1998 through this annual survey. It is one of its largest consumer surveys and includes input from 40,000 Americans. This year's survey was conducted in January and February.

[Inconnux]

I rarely turn the TV on, Never read newspapers, don't ever listen to the radio, and haven't purchased a magazine in months... Almost all of my 'media time' is spent online

[redmarine]

I watch TV, read newspapers, listen to the radio, purchases magazines every month and I use the internet all the time.

The internet is my biggest media as it provides stuff that I need.

[BtmnHatesRbn]

Actually, it's not I know where I want to go, but, like Mark Cuban wrote, the Internet is dead. In the old days, I'd surf a bunch of sites to get computer news, not just visit CNET and The Register. Today, that's it, and I don't even bother with The Register because of CNET. Same goes for video gaming news, regular news, etc. Sites like classicgaming.com and others that served a niche and were updated hourly back in the Dot-Com Days are updated annually, if that, or forgotten altogether. Then forums start to dry up and get dominated by a core group that nobody knows who or what they stand for after so long, etc. It also doesn't help that search engines give links to present-day topics that are years, sometimes over a decade, old. I have more fun going through the Wayback Machine than I do surfing the normal Web. How did that ever come about?