The Digital World, Digital Life poll involved more than 27,500 participants ranging in age from 18-to-55 years old, located in Australia, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.
"If our leisure time is so precious, then why do we on average spend almost a third of it using the Internet?" TNS Global Interactive Managing Director, Arno Hummerston, asked rhetorically. "We believe it is because we are making more efficient use of our valuable time, specifically by using the Internet — thereby allowing us to fit more into our lives."
According to the report, British housewives spend nearly half their leisure time online; compared to students, which spend almost 40 percent of their free time on the web; and the unemployed, who spend around a third of their time online. On a worldwide average, people devote 29 percent of their leisure time to being on the Internet.
The Chinese claim the top spot for online leisure time at 44 percent. Compare this with the Scandinavian countries, which reported the least amount of non-work related Internet use, with the Danish spending 15 percent of their leisure time online — outpaced by their Swedish cousins at 18 percent and the Norwegians at 22 percent.
"Being online helps people fulfill certain tasks and activities quickly and efficiently," Hummerston offered. "By spending productive time online, we are actually making more time for leisure."
Also addressed was the public's perception of the trustworthiness of various types of news and information media, such as newspapers, blogs and television. Among the findings, Germans are more than twice as likely to trust Wikipedia as a source of information, as are Britons, 52-to-24 percent.
Germans also seem more trusting of people they meet on the Internet, with 76 percent having met up with an online friend "in the real world." Nearly 60 percent of British surfers had real world hookups, as did 40 percent of Chinese — the lowest reported meeting rate. Interestingly, Germans seemed the most distrusting of their online friend's true identities, with 57 percent doubting a poster's persona, as compared to a 37 percent average.
Another interesting aspect of Internet use is that the same device people use to pay their bills (more than 75 percent of Britons have used online banking in the past month) and do other work, actually frees up leisure time they'll use the same device for play — and sex. The Chinese love blogging; the Germans enjoy chat rooms; Koreans are heavily into social networking; while the Swedes want to share their photos and videos online.
"With more social and entertainment activities available online, it is also easy to understand why our lives are becoming more digital," Hummerston concluded.
For operators in the online adult entertainment industry, seeing more people spending more of their leisure time on the Internet is welcome news; pointing the way to future opportunities — and the challenges of serving an increasingly cosmopolitan user base.