Author Archives: Kacper Mielnik

What kind of people were connecting to the web in 2020?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Research conducted by CBOS on 20 January 2020 shows that 68% of adult Poles use the Internet, last year only 1% more used the Internet.

This graph shows how many adults used the web by year.

More interestingly, however, it turns out that many factors such as education, wealth and many others influence whether an adult uses the internet or not.

Does age matter?

Age plays a key role. As we know, the generations that were born in the age of the internet cannot imagine life without it. the exceptions are a few social groups such as the Amish. However, there are fewer internet users among older people who did not come across the internet when they were young or who came across it later.

Here is a graph showing the relationship between procentage of people using the internet and their age.

What does education have to do with internet use?

Actually, it is more about the fact that older people usually only had the opportunity to complete primary school, which also translates into statistics in surveys. As can be seen in the graph below, the least people using the Internet are those with primary education, i.e. mostly older people who are not used to using the benefits of the Internet.

Please bear in mind that the number of respondents with lower secondary education was low, as lower secondary education schools has not been in Poland for as long as other schools.

How does the position we work at affect our use of the internet?

It turns out that our work has an impact on whether we use the Internet or not, and some jobs even require access to the Internet and staying up to date via it. As is well known, a farmer does not need access to the web as much as the position of business owner or professionals with higher education requires, who must constantly improve their methods of work in order not to fall from their position. Below is a graph showing the percentage of each occupational group using the internet.

Does the Material Situation Affect Internet Use?

It is obvious that someone who cannot afford to pay for the Internet, pay for the telephone subscription or top up the pre-paid account on the telephone has no way of using the Internet. However, there is an initiative by the O2 network, which is a completely free network, but you still need to have internet access to order a sim card from this network. Rich people, on the other hand, have money for the internet and I bet those extremely rich people who don’t use the internet have subscriptions anyway.

The graph below shows Percentages of internet use among those describing their financial situation as:

Sources:

https://cbos.pl/SPISKOM.POL/2020/K_085_20.PDF

The most useless mobile apps

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Mobile applications can either be useful, help us in our work, facilitate contact with others or be used for entertainment. However, there is one peculiar group of applications that has virtually no use. They are created as a kind of joke, maybe a test to see how many people will download it, or a simple way to earn money for minimal effort. 

The first example is an application with a very graceful name “The most useless app ever” (It is not on the App store, at least I have not found it, perhaps it has already been withdrawn). In any case, as the name suggests, this application is not used for absolutely nothing, the whole game is that after starting the application our eyes see a red button, after pressing which absolutely nothing happens. The author himself in the description said that he created this application only to prove how useless it is.  

Another example of a useless app is the controversial “I Am Rich” app This app is no longer available on the app store however at one time it cost $999.99 which was the maximum you could sell something for on the app store. Upon launching the app, some sort of red gem and icon was displayed. After pressing the icon, a mantra was displayed which contained the following phrase: 

“I am rich, 

I deserv [sic] it 

I am good, 

healthy & successful” 

Interestingly as many as eight people decided to buy this bizarre app. six of them came from the united states and two from europe. Two of these people got a refund for the app, which still adds up to about $6,000 spent on an app that has no functional use except to show off the fact that the user can afford to buy it. 

The next app is quite interesting, at least for a lot of people as it has 10 million downloads and a rating of 4.5/5 which made me wonder if it actually had a specific use, but it turned out to be a simple lighter simulator. The application is called “Lighter” and its purpose is to display a lighter that we can light and extinguish. It can be lumped together with all kind of simulators like razor simulator for phone and other applications of that kind. The only use I can find for this application is to turn it on during a concert of some oldschool band if you don’t have a real lighter with you. 

The last app I want to include in this list is the “Is it dark outside?” app. This app, based on your location, determines what time zone you are in and based on that it gives a verdict whether it is dark outside or not. The application is available on the App Store has a rating of 5/5; however, I have not found the number of downloads for this application and it is a pity. Anyway, the app is free and iphone users can download it, unfortunately android users will never know if it is dark outside. 

Sources:

8 najbardziej bezużytecznych mobilnych aplikacji

https://cyrekdigital.com/pl/blog/najdziwniejsze-i-najbardziej-bezuzyteczne-aplikacje/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Rich

The New Media – does this ‘enslave’ teenagers?

Reading Time: 3 minutes

Especially in these times, mobile phones, tablets and computers have become an integral part of our lives. Today, for many people, whether through quarantine or fear for themselves or their loved ones, they have become the only connection to the outside world. 

In the 1990s, many people already had a mobile phone, this technology was becoming increasingly popular, computers became more and more popular at the same time and the Internet became more widespread. This led to the fact that in 2019 in Poland, as many as 70.5% of Poles used the Internet and 91.2% have mobile access to the network. 

What are New Media? 

In simple terms, these include social media, web portals, emails and other such tools. What makes them stand out from traditional media is that in the new media the situation changes very quickly and after just five or ten minutes the situation may be completely different, which means that knowledge-hungry teenagers by nature often check what new things have come up in the case they are currently following. This is because, unlike traditional media, thousands, if not millions, of people have access to constant monitoring and participation in an event on an ongoing basis. Permanent access to commenting on an event and engaging in dialogue about it makes it difficult for someone who is interested in a topic to ‘unseal’ from the monitor. 

Teenagers “let in” on the Internet 

On average, the young man spent three hours a day surfing the net. In a study carried out by CEBOS in 2013, 20% used the net one hour a day, 28% two hours, 22% three hours and 21% four to five hours. However, an alarming number of hours, with between six and eight hours a day, were spent by 7% of the young people surveyed, while 2% spent an alarming nine or even more hours. In 2019, the NASK Institute conducted a study entitled ‘Teenagers 3.0’ conducted in Polish primary, lower secondary and upper secondary schools, from which it obtained the following results: In 2019, an average teenager spends more than four hours a day online. For this purpose, he usually uses a smartphone, without which many young people currently cannot imagine life. The results of these studies can be seen in the diagram below. 

When putting these studies together, it is not difficult to see that the percentage of teenagers spending between 6 hours and 8 hours or more online has increased dramatically compared to the 2013 study. 

Dependence on New Media 

Referring to the same NASK study from 2019, almost 60% of young Poles browse social media, almost 19% of news and about 18% of mail. Using social media is one of the higher scores in the survey, only listening to music (65.4%), watching movies and series (62.1%) and contacting loved ones through chat rooms and communicators (61%) were higher. All these studies only show how long the Internet and its capabilities can hold us together. It is appalling that 12% of the teenagers surveyed spend eight hours or more on the internet, given that this is one of the first generations to be born in the age of the widespread and so developed internet. What makes teenagers addicted to the most is the social networking sites where they browse all the videos and memes, all kinds of online games (I used to play a lot of MMO RPGs myself), different chats and many more.I use social networking sites quite a lot myself, I browse through memes and write with friends and for the time lost before this type of entertainment I don’t even look at it so I don’t know how much I spend on it. 

Sources 

CBOS, Internauci 2013 

Report on research “Nastolatki 3.0″ NASK (2019) 

https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/mlodzi-polacy-nie-rozstaja-sie-ze-smartfonami-badanie-nask-jak-mlodzi-poalcy-korzystaja-z-internetu

https://www.wirtualnemedia.pl/artykul/ponad-70-procent-polakow-korzysta-z-internetu-52-zlote-na-oplaty-za-uslugi-komorkowe-dlaczego-raport-uke-jak-polacy-korzystaja-z-internetu

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone

http://www.swiatproblemow.pl/nowe-media-pozytek-przyjemnosc-czy-przymus/