Outcomes: social interactions and behavioural change

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Based on the facts above, the only inference that can be supported is that people communicate more than ever and their patterns of associations are wider. Whether or not this is done with shorter communication sessions remains to be confirmed, but it is definitely with more frequency. In any event, the theories of people becoming closed-in or socially withdrawn are not supported by the evidence presented here. (Surely there are those who spend all-day in on-line solitude, but this is not the case for the society at large). The pattern of communication and interaction has changed. The reality is that people are talking to other people -whether to the person next door or to someone thousands of miles and time zones away. Thus, it is not that people are becoming anti-social; it is that people are becoming differently social.

The point is that people find utility and must derive satisfaction from all this, as it is done through their own free will. People place value on having an extended network of people to communicate with, and a sense of community and belonging at a very different level (Florida 2003). Moreover, as shall be seen shortly, people are willing to pay for this.

Collectively, using ICTs absorbs several extra hours in daily routines and, estimating from the data, this is not all due to using ICTs for activities that were previously done without. This outcome certainly has consequences as it bumps against the inescapable 24-hour constraint. Where is this 'extra' time coming from?

First, this time reflects ICT usage everywhere, in our various capacities in daily lives, at work and at home. Certainly at work ICT usage has replaced other methods of work and ways of doing things. People use computers in the place of calculators and substitute ICTs for manual processes. Not only are there substitutions from non-ICT to ICT methods, but within ICTs too, i.e. due to e-mails fewer telephone calls may be made and received or fewer post-it notes used. Depending on the specific context at hand and the familiarity with the execution, such substitutions do not necessarily add time to working lives. There are, however, at least two areas for further exploration. One is that average time spent at work has increased, and the other is the frequent reference to the loss of distinction between work and play, which adds to the sense of being busier than before (Statistics Canada 1999b). Definitely, the use of ICTs by the employee does not provide the whole answer to the time issue - social lives must also be considered.

Data show that ICT usage at home has increased considerably too. Off-peak telephone calls (roughly, calls during non-working hours) have declined overall, which explains the pricing incentives of both wireline and wireless operators as peak time puts strains on the capacity of the networks. Indeed, some data from wireless usage in the U.S. indicate that in 2002, outgoing calls between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. accounted for almost 70% of the total - albeit lower than the 73% in 2000. But interstate minutes alone, show that off peak talking (7p.m. to 7 a.m.), increased from less than 30% in 2000 to 41% in 2002. The data also indicate that more than 40% of volumes take place on the weekends, up from 31% in 2000. This points to the expansion social calls.

The second important fact is that time-use is subject to co-tasking or multi-tasking - handling two or more things at the same time. People talk on the cell phone while driving or running errands, or talk on the phone while doing household chores. Thus, it is not clear whether and to what extent this extra chunk of time cuts into other activities. Well-designed time-use surveys would be needed to shed more light on these issues. At the same time, people must be cognizant of the fact that studying time-use can be tricky, as it is subject to the prevailing technological possibilities, which are rapidly changing (See also Veenhof 2006). Suffice it to say that one hour spent on the Internet through a dial-up connection may not accomplish as much as a few minutes using high-speed Internet.

Generally, though, regardless of whether ICTs add to co-tasking or lead to the replacement of other activities for which a learning curve must be climbed -  or both - all this adds to a sense of 'busyness'. The situation is obviously much more pronounced among the sizeable group of ICT users, and even more so among the smaller sub-group of heavy users. Although these people may feel the strain more than the others, it trickles over to the rest of society, contributing to the perception that people are busier than ever. In that sense, ICTs can be added to the broader spectrum of time-saving technologies that ironically lead to busier lives. Again, though, as people engage in all of this by their own volition it must be that they attach value to such transformation and change.

Consumer spending

To underscore this, there is evidence in the form of people's willingness to pay. The outcomes of ICTs in people's lives do not stop with their changed behaviour patterns, but they are manifested in the changing pattern of spending. In the early '80s, what would be considered ICT spending would be largely confined to telephones and the television. Today, household spending on ICT includes significant outlays on computers, cell phones, the Internet and satellite connections. Not only has ICT spending increased as new ICTs entered the consumption basket, but its composition has also changed. For instance, household expenditures for telephone services accounted for 35.4% of total ICT spending in 1997, but for 26.9% in 2003. On the other hand, Internet spending increased from 1.7% to 6.2% over the same period. Nearly 7 out of 10 households reported owning a computer in 2003 and about 22% of households reported buying new computer hardware during the same year, a figure which has risen steadily in recent years (Statistics Canada 2004b).

In Canada, average household spending on ICT increased from $2,118 to $2,780, in just a short period (between 1997 and 2003) (Statistics Canada 2004b). Not only does this represent a significant increase in absolute terms in very recent years, but it also represents an increase in the proportion of total spending from 4.2% to 4.5%. This is remarkable, as it happened over a period where ICT prices plummeted. In fact, computer prices dropped by 10% between 2002 and 2003 alone (Statistics Canada, Computer and Peripherals Price Indexes). Moreover, as prices fell and even as penetration of home computers increased from 39.8% in 1997 to 66.8% in 2003, spending on computer equipment and supplies over the same period grew from an average of $299 per household in 1997 to $326 in 2003 (Statistics Canada 2004b).

More detailed analysis reveals that most of the aggregate expenditure on ICTs comes from people with higher incomes, which links to the issue of the digital divide. In 2002, households in the top income quintile accounted for one-third of all spending, while households in the second highest income quintile accounted for almost one-quarter of total spending (Chart 6).

Chart 6
Share of household ICT spending by income quintile, Canada, 2002

Source: Statistics Canada, Survey of Household Spending, 2002.

However, ICT spending represents a higher proportion of spending among lower-income households. In 2002, ICT expenditures accounted for 6.3% of average total spending among households at the bottom income quintile compared to 3.9% of average total spending among households at the top income quintile. Moreover, the desire to participate in the Information Society can be understood more dramatically by looking at the share of average current spending¹⁴ among ICT expenditure reporting households in the bottom income quintile, which approached 20% (Table 14).

The reason for this is that a substantial amount of ICT-related expenses are fixed, such as the price of computers, basic telephone and cable services or Internet connections. On the other hand, discretionary spending, such as usage of long distance telephone services, can be controlled and thus accounts for a smaller proportion of total ICT spending.