Online Gaming Is More Popular than Facebook and YouTube
Gaming Remains the Most Popular Online Entertainment Activity
“Playing games is still a more popular online activity in the U.S. than watching short video clips or visiting social networking websites, according to Casual Gaming Market Update, a new report from Parks Associates. Thirty-four percent of U.S. adult Internet users play online games on a weekly basis, compared with 29% who watch short online videos and 19% who visit social networking sites with the same frequency.” [Parks Associates, <em>via a note from Val on Facebook</em>]
We need to fund libraries properly so that they can provide computers and bandwidth to support all of these activities.
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Absolutely! Especially since mine is grinding to a halt! Internet bandwith in the United States is atrocious especially in the rural areas.Thanks for posting this.
Comment by Jeff — Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 8:30 am
Hello, Jenny!
Loved your post. Specially when, in my home country - Portugal -, most of the librarians would go crazy with your statement “We need to fund libraries properly so that they can provide computers and bandwidth to support all of these activities.”
We got to give people what they want and, once indoors, we’ll try to promote literature and other cultural contents. That´s what I believe in.
My name is Gaspar and i´m a librarian in Oeiras, a city near the capital, Lisbon. I got a blog about teenagers and young adults in public libraries: http://adrianepandora.blogspot.com
Fell free to make me a visit, eventough you won´t understand a think if you don´t know portuguese (or spanish).
If you know some US blogs about teens and young adults and libraries, send me a mail or reply this comment, ok?
Like your blog a lot!
Gaspar
Comment by Gaspar Matos — Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 9:46 am
Jenny:
FYI - I was originally alerted to the Parks Associates report from the blog of the Redwood City (CA) Public Library, Liblog: A Library Weblog, at http://www.rcpl.info/services/liblog.html. Very informative!
Comment by Val Hawkins — Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 10:10 am
[…] Playing Internet Games is the Most Popular Online Activity I recently came across an interesting bit of information about online activity and thought I’d pass it along to you. It has been noted that even among adults weekly time spent on the internet is at its highest in the “gaming” area! Follow the link to read the article. http://theshiftedlibrarian.com/archives/2007/08/22/online-gaming-is-more-popular-than-facebook-and-y… […]
Pingback by Playing Internet Games is the Most Popular Online Activity « In The Stacks — Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 12:23 pm
Here comes the old fuddy duddy again. We have given over a lot of computers and bandwidth to public access PCs, and we can see from looking at them that they are NOT being used for library related research. We are now nothing more than a game palace for people who nothing better to do. I have had to use a cane and walker recently and I man darn sure to be out of the way when the doors open a they RUN to the computers and sit there for hours playing games.
I head up a genealogy division, and we have created many useful indexes and have access to commercial ones as well. I was responsible for taking public access internet off out computers - because we were paying about to 15 K a year for database access - and the gamers would not get off the computers so patrons could use them. The other division heads (all about my age and years of service) have been grinding their teeth in frustration because of the misbehavior of the gamers.
Sure, sure, I am speaking out of frustration, but the strongest advocates for gaming are NOT the ones who have to enforce library regs - and make it to their cars or public transport home at predictable times every day. We have had a number of police incidents this year and when I see something like “We need to fund libraries properly so that they can provide computers and bandwidth to support all of these activities.”, well I think that we need funding, yes, but people can play games, watch videos and do social networking on their own nickel.
Hmpf.
Comment by Larry — Wednesday, August 22, 2007 @ 6:44 pm
Just a curious note. I’ve noticed I have a tendency to treat the phrase “online games” differently than “games online”. When I hear the phrase online games I think of games that derive part of their function from being online. So in other words, I’m interacting with remote servers. So a pc game like World of Warcraft is an online game. So too would be a MUD. Even console games that allow me to use things like X-Box Live can be an online game. Notice you could play many console games either online or off.
I don’t consider things like most of the pop games and the like to be “online games”. (Think collapse, the bookworm one, etc). They’re merely games you play online. The online part is just a delivery mechanism. If many people didn’t have trouble with installing software, you could easily see people installing them on their computer and never go back online.
Trapped in a more nebulous area for me is online versions of card and board games with multiple live players. Is chess game done via a webpage an online game? Is a chess game played by email an online game? Yes, but it’s not what would immediately come to my mind.
My suspicion is that most people don’t differentiate between the two and it’s more of a product of growing up a gamer in the eighties.
So….I wonder if there’s a need to distinguish between those types of games.
Comment by Jon Gorman — Thursday, August 23, 2007 @ 8:20 am
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Pingback by iLibrarian » A Quick Guide to Gaming in Libraries — Thursday, August 23, 2007 @ 1:16 pm
What about games you play ON facebook?
There are several apps on there now that function this way and people spend hours and hours on them because they have a bit of the social element (don’t just poke your friends - recruit them to be pirates then bomb them and steal their coins)
Comment by Emily — Monday, August 27, 2007 @ 10:33 am
[…] “Playing games is still a more popular online activity in the U.S. than watching short video clips or visiting social networking websites, according to Casual Gaming Market Update, a new report from Parks Associates. Thirty-four percent of U.S. adult Internet users play online games on a weekly basis, compared with 29% who watch short online videos and 19% who visit social networking sites with the same frequency.” Gaming Remains the Most Popular Online Entertainment Activity, Hat tip: The Shifted Librarian. […]
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