Internet & Technology

Lee Rainie was the morning keynote speaker at the Society for Scholarly Publishing's conference on May 31, discussing how people use technology to gather, share, and create information.

Overall adoption remains steady, but "typical day" usage continues to grow. 8% of online adults now use Twitter on a typical day. African-Americans, young adults, and mobile users stand out for their high rates of Twitter usage.

The Facebook IPO was a hot topic on blogs, Twitter and Facebook last week with doubts about the stock’s value exceeding bullishness on the investment.  And the topics of conversation—which ranged from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s wedding to co-founder Eduardo Saverin’s citizenship—varied by social media platform.

Game mechanics like rewards and feedback loops are gaining ground in digital life and many experts think they will spread widely to key domains like education and health by 2020. Others worry about a darker side.

Kristen Purcell spoke about Americans' use of the internet and other digital technologies, and shared highlights from our report on the rise of e-reading.

At two degrees of separation (friends of friends), Facebook users surveyed on average can reach 150,000 other Facebook users.

Parents are enthusiastic downloaders of all kinds of apps, particularly apps for children.

74% of smartphone owners use their phone to get real-time location-based information, and 18% use a geosocial service to "check in" to certain locations or share their location with friends

74% of smartphone owners use their phone to get real-time location-based information, and 18% use a geosocial service to “check in” to certain locations or share their location with friends.

Lee Rainie will give the keynote presentation titled "Learning in the Digital Age: Where Libraries Fit In" at the 21st Annual Minitex ILL Conference in Minnesota.