There’s little wonder why George Orwell’s novel “1984” is seeing a resurgence in sales.
More than half of Americans polled in a survey said they agreed with the statement “We are really in the era of Big Brother.”
The survey from the University of Southern California was conducted last year, before recent revelations of large-scale, secret government surveillance programs. Yet it still found that some 35 percent of respondents agreed that “There is no privacy, get over it.”
A growing number of Internet users said they are concerned about the government checking on their online activities, according to the survey. But even more people were worried about businesses doing the same.
The USC Annenberg School’s Center for the Digital Future has polled more than 2,000 U.S. households about their Internet and technology use each year, with the exception of 2011, since 1999.
Forty-three percent of Internet users said they are concerned about the government checking what they do online, up from 38 percent in 2010. But 57 percent said they were worried about private companies doing the same thing — up from 48 percent in the earlier study.
A 2012 survey by the Pew Research Center found that almost three-quarters of Americans are concerned that businesses are collecting too much information about people like them, while 64 percent had the same worry about the government.
In addition to their views on privacy, the most recent report also found that 86 percent of Americans are online, up from 82 percent in 2010. That’s the highest level in the study’s history and further evidence of how central the Internet has become in American’s lives, especially in the age of mobile devices.
“We find that people almost never lose their mobile phone,” said Jeff Cole, author of the study and director of the center. “They can drop it in the gutter, have it stolen but leave it on the table at a restaurant — most of us don’t even get through the front door before noticing it.”
More than half of the Internet users surveyed said they go online using a mobile device, up from a third who said the same thing in 2010. As expected, texting is becoming increasingly important for people of all ages — 82 percent of mobile phone users text, up from 62 percent in 2010 and 31 percent in 2007.
Among other key findings:
o Thirty percent of parents said they don’t monitor what their children do on social networking sites such as Facebook, while 70 percent said that they do.
o Nearly half of parents, 46 percent, said that they have their kids’ passwords so they can access their account.
o People spent more time online than in any previous year of the study. On average, they were online 20.4 hours per week, up from 18.3 hours in 2010 and about nine hours in 2000.
Buying online
The report explored a variety of new issues involving online buying, including purchasing on mobile devices and the impact of sales tax on Internet buying:
o Sales tax and online purchasing – More than half of Internet buyers (52 percent) said that if their state starts to collect tax for online purchases, they would buy less online, and 9 percent said they would stop buying online altogether. Only 39 percent said that sales tax charged for online purchases would not change their purchasing.
o Browsing and price-comparing in retail stores with a mobile device – The survey found popular use of mobile devices while shoppers browse in traditional retail stores:
o Forty-nine percent of Internet purchasers who browse in local retail stores said they have compared prices on a mobile device while in a store to see if there is a better deal available online.
o Thirty percent of Internet users overall said they have used a mobile device while in a store to determine if a better deal was available at another store nearby.
o Thirteen percent of online purchasers who browse locally said they have purchased a product online with a mobile device while in a store. Seventy percent of that group made the purchase from a competing online retailer, and not from the store’s website.
Millennials/non-Millennials
o Millennials are more involved with mobile shopping and comparison shopping than non-Millennials. Sixty-eight percent of Millennials have done a price comparison on their mobile devices while in a store to find if there is a better deal available online, compared to 43 percent of non-Millennials.
o Twice as many Millennials (23 percent) as non-Millennials (10 percent) have purchased products online on their mobile device while in a traditional retail store.
o Forty-six percent of Millennials compared to 24 percent of non-Millennials have done an online price comparison in a store to find a better deal at another retail store.
o Millennials as consumers of online media content – Compared to non-Millennials in the study, Millennials spend:
— three times as much time watching movies online.
— twice as much time listening to online radio.
— four times as much time watching television online.
— more than twice as much time watching paid online television services such as Hulu Plus.
— and almost twice as many watch movies sometimes or often through a fee service such as CinemaNow or Netflix.
o Online video content – More than twice as many Millennials as non-Millennials watch online versions of television shows or music videos.
o Perceptions of social networking sites – Higher percentages of Millennials (70 percent) compared to non-Millennials (51 percent) value social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus as important for maintaining their relationships.
o Following and friending companies and brands – Compared to non-Millennials, Millennials follow nine times as many companies and brands on Twitter, and “friend” more than twice as many companies and brands on social networking sites such as Facebook.
The 2012 poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.7 percentage points.
