Posts Tagged 'demographics'

Have you ever wanted to know how many people use the Internet, what they use it for, etc?  Well, in less that four minutes, you can watch this well done video and get a great summary of what happens online on a daily basis:

The 2009 Sloan Survey of Online Learning reveals that enrollment rose by nearly 17 percent from a year earlier.  The survey of more than 2,500 colleges and universities in the United States finds approximately 4.6 million students were enrolled in at least one online course in fall 2008, the most recent term for which figures are available.  According to the survey, both the bad economy and the flu were significant factors contributing to the increase.

The third American Religious Identification Survey has just been released, and it shows some interesting trends.  In terms of percentage, overall self-identification as “Christian” has stayed about the same as it was in 2001 -  76%, but there have been a couple of areas of significant change:

• Non-denominational Christians have tripled in size (as a percentage) to just over eight million.
• Evangelical Christians have doubled in size (as a percentage) to over two million.
• Mainline Christians appear to have dropped the most, down to twenty-nine million.

US Population by Religious Tradition

Using the religious tradition categories above, how do you identify yourself?

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Looking ahead to the rest of the new year that just started (yippee!) … how do you plan to stay connected with friends, colleagues, news, etc?  With so many relationships to manage in so many different contexts, how do you (and how do I)  keep up to date?

Personally, I find myself using email, Facebook, podcasts (video) and news sites most frequently.  Each one has advantages and disadvantages, but using them together seems to be relatively effective at nurturing existing relationships, and finding/forming new ones.  It is tough to stay connected with everyone, though, isn’t it?

With so many “relationships”, it is often hard to invest enough energy into the important ones.  If there is a flaw in the new world of online social networking (and yes, there just might be a flaw or two!), it is that managing  lots of superficial relationships is a lot easier than investing in a few deep relationships.  When we live behind a screen, whether on our desk or in our hand, it seems that we often drift away from the rich and transparent friendships that we each need.

So how is this for a good January challenge – send a friend a message with a pen and paper (remember those?) rather than a few keystrokes. 

How about you?  How to you plan to stay connected in 2009?

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If you are a marketer, researcher, trend watcher, or are just trying to read how North American culture is being shaped, the two summary charts below will intrigue you.  I compiled the information earlier this week, and it clearly shows which age groups and genders are the largest users of Facebook:¹

In actual numbers, the top three groups of Facebook users in Canada and the United States are: