Digital Collaborator

The Pew Internet and American Life Project just published their latest poll results titled The Mobil Difference. Nothing too shocking here, just a confirmation of what we're seeing regarding the rapid move to digital communication and networking.

I learned that I fall in the category of the Digital Collaborator. 8% of Americans are in this group.

Here is what the Pew report has to say about Digital Collaborators.

As much as this group consumes digital content, it is also very distinct in what it does with digitized information. They create and share it at rates much higher than members of other groups. More than half (54%) of Digital Collaborators have shared some sort of creation with the world using the internet and the same number have posted a comment to a blog or website. One-quarter (27%) have blogs and 24% have taken online material and remixed into some other form. Some 44% have their own web page, and nearly one-fifth (18%) have created an online avatar or graphic image of themselves.

On a typical day, 59% of those in this group with cell phones do at least one of ten non-voice data applications, such as texting or taking a picture (a full list of non-voice data activities asked about can be found in the Appendix). For Digital Collaborators, handheld applications are oriented toward traditional information consumption and exchange. Members of this group are most likely among all adults on the average day to use their cell phone for email (18%) and accessing the internet for information (21%). And members of this group are most likely to have ever used their handheld to get directions or a map (29% have ever done this).

The Digital Collaborator is me. I have a blog, I share my digital photographs online using flickr, I use my cell phone for email when I'm out of the office, I listen to podcasts on my iPod, I read using my Kindle, and I use the web to learn and connect with others.

But here's the funny part. The average age of the Digital Collaborator is 39! Whoops! Someone forgot to tell the Pew organization about old guys like me! I wrote about this in 2006 in a blog post called The Old Man and the Internet. I'm 2 1/2 years older and still digitally connected. In fact, more even more so. In 2006 I didn't have a Kindle and I didn't go online or receive email on my Palm Treo.

You can go here if you would like take a short survey to determine what kind of tech user you are. Me, I'm a Digital Collaborator!