FOR RELEASE FEBRUARY 9, 2005

I bank, therefore I am?

Is the internet changing our perception of off-line activities?

BY Susannah Fox

FOR MEDIA OR OTHER INQUIRIES:

Communications Department
202.419.4372
www.pewresearch.org

RECOMMENDED CITATION

Pew Research Center, February 2005, "I bank, therefore I am?"

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Table of contents

I bank, therefore I am?

Is the internet changing our perception of off-line activities?

In our report, “The Future of the Internet,” we quote Douglas Rushkoff, an author and professor at the New York University Interactive Telecommunications Program, who wrote, “The biggest changes, as always with new media, will be metaphorical. It’s not that anything in particular that we do on the internet is so important – it’s that behaviors we have online can serve as models for behaviors that change in real life.”

Online banking is a good example – and the topic of a data memo released today. Fully 63% of home broadband users do their banking online, compared to 32% of users with dial-up access at home. Broadband users probably do all sorts of chores online – grocery shopping, gift buying, party invitations – and they expect that the internet will provide the convenient solution for all their personal business. And they may start to question why certain entities (doctors’ offices come to mind) can’t yet serve their high-speed lifestyle needs.