Study: Americans Absorb 34 Gigabytes of Data Each Day
Researchers at the University of California, San Diego have complied a report on information consumption by Americans. In it they estimate for 2008 Americans consumed a total of 3.6 zettabytes and 10,845 trillion words, which averages out to 34 gigabytes and 100,500 words per person. (Collectively, that’s enough to fill “all the hard drives in Minnesota.”)
The researchers use a broad definition of information. It includes “flows of data delivered to people…measured in bytes, words, and hours…” Basically, every type of human-made information we come into contact with.
It’s not a surprise that television, in its many forms, dominates the flow, accounting for nearly 45 percent of all content. And, despite the boom in computer technology and the Internet, more than three-fourths of the information we receive comes from non-computer sources. (Looking only at the consumption of “compressed bytes,” however, the report says that computer games rule!)
Nor is it a surprise the report finds our information consumption habits to be “overwhelmingly passive.” For most of us the telephone is our major source of active consumption. (Remote controls don’t count.)
Reading, however, is on the rebound, with rates tripling between 1980 and 2008 due to our use of the Internet. (That will come to an end soon, once we get decent text-to-speech going.)
Despite Moore’s Law, which has data processing capacities doubling every two years, our consumption of information is shuffling along at 5.4 percent per year. Analog television is apparently the culprit. As digital and high definition television spread the amount of information consumed will show greater yearly increases.
Before you make too much of all this, please note the report says all of its “results are estimates.”
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