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To: Mark Fowler who wrote (116182)	1/25/2001 9:19:03 AM
From: Victor Lazlo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Many Consumers Say No Thanks to 24/7 Internet By Andrea Orr, Reuters, 1/24/2001 PALO ALTO (Reuters) - Has Internet fatigue set in? Some new data suggests it has, and not just among the once enthused dot-com workers who have lost their jobs and the investors who have lost their shirts. Now it appears the typical Internet surfer may also be getting a little bored with all the time spent in Internet chat rooms, news sites and stores -- time often spent at the expense of other leisure activities like reading, watching television or hanging out with real live people. Nielsen/NetRatings last week reported a steep drop in individual surfing time during December and said that for the past few months Web users have been steadily spending less time online both at home and at work. The ratings service said that there is typically a small seasonal drop in December, but noted last year's decline was much more pronounced than usual, when many people stayed connected even when they went on vacation. The amount of time the average Internet user logged online fell a steep 15 percent between October and December to 14.9 hours from 17.5, Nielsen found. Other findings corroborated the trend. The average number of online sessions per month dropped to 28 in December from 33 in October, and the number of unique sites visited slipped to 17 from 20. Moreover, the decline seemed consistent across all demographic groups. ''We checked by race, gender, age and location in the country, and there was no subgroup that accounted for it,'' Sean Kaldor, vice president of e-commerce at Nielsen/NetRatings, said. Kaldor said that people spending less time at work around Christmas and Thanksgiving usually produced a 5 percent decrease in Internet usage during the holiday months. But, he added, ''this is the first time we've seen such a significant drop.'' As much as the holidays were a factor in keeping would-be surfers offline, Kaldor said the large drop last year suggests the novelty of the Internet is wearing off. ''The fact that people decided to take a break from the Internet when they were away from work, that's new and that's important,'' he said. ''If you're an advertiser and you want to run an after-Christmas promotion, the Internet may not be the best place to do it.'' Some analysts argue that simply counting the hours people spent logged on in their homes or at the office is not the most thorough measure. As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous, people are able to retrieve information in public spaces, noted Abhishek Gami, an analyst at William Blair and Co. in Chicago, who said he recently found an Internet screen in an elevator. But Gami and others think there is something to the Nielsen numbers, and say no one should be all that surprised by them. The drop in the amount of time spent online came as more and more consumers were connecting to the Internet for the first time. If it took them this long to get connected in the first place, you have to figure they are not the most technically inclined people. ''In the mainstream, people are just not as interested in the Internet as a thing unto itself. They see it more as an application for a quick check of some information, not as a hobby,'' Gami said. ''I doubt the people who were using the Internet a year ago are using it any less today. It's just that the people who are coming online now are not real Internet junkies, and they are dragging the average lower.'' ''It shouldn't really be a reason for concern, except for those people who built business models assuming the average person would spend 40 hours a week online,'' he added. ''Of course a lot of people did build those business models.'' digitalmass.boston.com