Canadians are heavy users...

According to the CBC.

• Canadians spend twice as much time surfing for information than for entertainment (6.1 hours versus 3.3 hours weekly).
• More than 9 in 10 internet users use e-mail, making it the principal activity of all users, with the average Canadian user spending four hours a week reading and writing e-mails.
• Among internet users, 65 per cent say they access news sites at least once a week, with one-third accessing news sites every day. Among Canadian English-speaking users, the top news sites mentioned were MSN, Yahoo, and CBC.ca. Among French-speaking users, the top three sites for news were Radio-Canada (the French-language service of the CBC), MSN and Canoe.
• Most Canadians report little awareness of Canadian cultural content on the internet while fewer than a third of Canadians are satisfied with the quality, quantity and accessibility of Canadian cultural content online.
• A majority (52 per cent) of Canadian internet users had made purchases online. That's the highest found in any of the worldwide surveys.

While I think it's a positive sign that most of the time is used for communication and finding information, the point about Canadian content is a bit odd - other than the obvious inferiority complex that the Canadian government wants to try to instil through this question - what is defined as "Canadian content". If most people can't identify it, then what does it matter about those can and find it lacking?? (MES readers - something to think about for your 501 class). If there isn't enough Canadian content out there - then make it! Granted, the Internet is a big place and we'll never overtly rule it (though we may in other was (bwahaha)), I just think it's naive that people still think in terms of nationality when it comes to the kind of information that is out there. And yes, I see the slippery slope of Canadian content being rolled out by some people out there... and I choose not to address it because I think it's operating at a different level. Technorati Tags: Email, Rant, Canadian Internet Project