• FAMILY, CONNECTING ONLINE: 26 million Americans have used email to start communicating regularly with a family member with whom they had not previously had much contact. (Pew Research Center, May 2000).
• FAMILY, CONNECTING ONLINE: Socializing, rather than shopping, drove most people online this holiday, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. More than half of Americans online – 51 million people – connected with family and friends through e-mail to discuss holiday plans. More than 30 million people, or 32% of Americans online, sent holiday-related e-greeting cards. By contrast, less than a quarter shopped for gifts on the Net.
• FAMILY, CONNECTIONS TO FRIENDS: 60% of those who email friends report they communicate with significant friends more often now that they use email -- 63% of women assert that; 54% of men say that. (Pew Research Center, May 2000).
• FAMILY, CONNECTIONS TO FRIENDS: 66% of Internet users say email has improved their connections with significant friends -- 71% of women assert that; 61% of men say that. (Pew Research Center, May 2000).
• FAMILY, GENEOLOGY RESEARCH: 24 million Americans used the Web and email to locate or hunt for family or friends they had lost touch with, 54 million belong to a family where someone in the family has used the Internet to research their family history or genealogy, and 16 million say they have learned more about their families since they began using email. (Pew Research Center, May 2000).
• FAMILY, HOUSEHOLDS WITHOUT COMPUTERS: 55% of households without computers say they don't need one and almost 20% of all households say they will never go online. (Forrester, June 2000).
• FAMILY, INTERNET DOES NOT IMPACT TIME TOGETHER: 88.4% of adults surveyed claimed the Internet had no effect on the time household members spend together. 93% felt the Internet had no bearing on the amount of time children spend with their friends. UCLA study http://www.uclanews.ucla.edu/Docs/LSHL514.html
• FAMILY, PARENTAL FILTERING WORLDWIDE: Almost one in five (19%) American youths said the content they viewed was restricted by filtering software, compared with 4% in France, 3% in Sweden and Italy, and 2% in the Netherlands. “The Face of the Web: Youth,” Ipsos-Reid conducted interviews with over 10,000 youths earlier this year.  [A study by Ipsos-Reid found that American children are more likely to have parents monitor their Internet use through instructions and filtering software than kids in other countries. But because of more costly Internet access rates, European children are restricted as to how much time they spend online.] http://www.angusreid.com/media/content/displaypr.cfm?id_to_view=1117&refer= main
• FAMILY, PC OWNERSHIP: Employment Policy Foundation (EPF) report, 51% (54.5 million) of US households have at least one computer. In addition, 43.5 million also have internet access. The EPF predicts that by November 2002, 68 million of US households will have computers and 66 million will have a computer and internet access. http://www.emarketer.com/estatnews/estats/edemographics/20010115_us_house.html?ref=wn
• FAMILY, WEB PAGES: 30 million Americans are members of families in which someone has created a family Web site. (Pew Research Center, May 2000).
  

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PLEASE BE ADVISED:

Research organizations differ on many measurements and predictions. Cisco Systems cannot verify the accuracy of all of the findings. We include all credible information to offer a glimpse into the range of estimates and predictions.

Abbreviations / acronyms used herein are defined and explained more fully in the issue briefs available at Cisco’s public policy page. Most common acronyms include DSL (digital subscriber line service, which is high speed Internet access over telephone lines); WAN (wide area network connections link different organizations such as schools across a region); LAN (local area network connections link computers within an organization)