GVU's Sixth WWW User Survey General Graphs

Webs Impact On Language And Culture

Notes:

For this question, respondents could choose more than one response.

The statement most strongly agreed with (59.2%) was that the web's impact on language and culture will be more helpful than harmful. Other statements that were strongly agreed with were that the web would help business, would unify languages, and unify people. European respondents especially felt that the web would help business and unify languages. More respondents from Europe than those from the US felt that the web would cause a loss of linguistic and cultural diversity. This is not that surprising given that Europe is more diverse than the US and that much of the current "culture and language" of the web comes from the US.

Respondents over age 50 agreed more strongly than younger respondents with the positive impacts of the web (more helpful than harmful, will help business, and will unify people and languages). Younger respondents were more likely to see the web as harmful and causing a loss of diversity.

Table of Data for All Categories

Web s Impact on Language and Culture	All	Male	Female	USA	Europe	19-25	26-50	50+
Cultural Diversity	1300 8.91%	854 8.53%	446 9.74%	969 8.03%	121 13.34%	272 10.17%	742 8.55%	122 7.08%
Harmful	458 3.14%	292 2.92%	166 3.63%	355 2.94%	29 3.20%	120 4.49%	210 2.42%	28 1.63%
Help Business	7017 48.11%	5124 51.20%	1893 41.35%	5723 47.43%	516 56.89%	1167 43.64%	4318 49.74%	984 57.14%
Helpful	8632 59.18%	6230 62.25%	2402 52.47%	7239 60.00%	532 58.65%	1368 51.16%	5213 60.05%	1283 74.51%
Language Diversity	2263 15.51%	1557 15.56%	706 15.42%	1697 14.06%	221 24.37%	566 21.17%	1208 13.92%	175 10.16%
Other	2120 14.53%	1317 13.16%	803 17.54%	1838 15.23%	75 8.27%	433 16.19%	1217 14.02%	152 8.83%
Unify Languages	6815 46.72%	4835 48.31%	1980 43.25%	5557 46.06%	510 56.23%	1193 44.61%	4005 46.14%	980 56.91%
Unify People	6221 42.65%	4317 43.14%	1904 41.59%	5169 42.84%	396 43.66%	1050 39.27%	3715 42.79%	932 54.12%

For more information or to submit comments:
send e-mail to www-survey@cc.gatech.edu.
GVU's WWW Surveying Team
Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center
College of Computing
Georgia Institute of Technology
Atlanta, GA 30332-0280