How do adult Americans like their technology? Pew Internet Life & Project’s Typology of information technology users

The Pew Internet Life & Project has just published its latest report: “A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users.”

It is based on the findings of a daily tracking survey on Americans’ use of the Internet, data gathered through telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates between February 15 and April 6, 2006, among a sample of 4,001 adults, aged 18 and older.

As a result, this typology should also be very helpful to institutions targeting adult students.

This 65-page report, available for free as a PDF file, identifies 10 types of technology users in the US that can be grouped in 3 main categories:

Elite Tech Users – 31% of American adults

• Omnivores 8%
  They have the most information gadgets and services, which they use voraciously to participate in cyberspace and express themselves online and do a range of Web 2.0 activities such as blogging or managing their own Web pages.
  The median age of this group is 28; just more than half of them are under age 30, versus one in five in the general population. 42% versus the 13% average of Omnivores are students, and many undoubtedly have access to high-speed and wireless networks at school.
• Connectors 7%
  Between featured-packed cell phones and frequent online use, they connect to people and manage digital content using ICTs –
  all with high levels of satisfaction about how ICTs let them work with community groups and pursue hobbies.
• Lackluster Veterans 8%
  They are frequent users of the internet and less avid about cell phones. They are not thrilled with ICT-enabled connectivity.

Middle-of-the-road Tech Users – 20%

• Productivity Enhancers 8%
  They have strongly positive views about how technology lets them keep up with others, do their jobs, and learn new things.
• Mobile Centrics 10%
  They fully embrace the functionality of their cell phones. They use the internet, but not often, and like how ICTs connect them to others.

Few Tech Assets – 49%

• Connected But Hassled 10%
  They have invested in a lot of technology, but they find the connectivity intrusive and information something of a burden.
• Inexperienced Experimenters 8%
  They occasionally take advantage of interactivity, but if they had more experience, they might do more with ICTs.
• Light But Satisfied 15%
  They have some technology, but it does not play a central role in their daily lives. They are satisfied with what ICTs do for them.
• Indifferents 11%
  Despite having either cell phones or online access, these users use ICTs only intermittently and find connectivity annoying.
• Off the Network 15%
  Those with neither cell phones nor internet connectivity tend to be older adults who are content with old media.

I think I fit the profile of a “connector” (incidentally 55% of those are women in my age bracket). I guess most readers of this blog are probably Elite Tech Users and a few might be Middle-of-the-Road users, but that’s just my guess.

So, tell me, what are you?

Go have a look at the complete descriptions of the types (go to page 18 of the PDF report) that describe best your relationship with technology and post a comment below to let us know what type of user you are.