23 March 2009
Average UK adults will spend 7.2 years of their lives online, it is claimed, which equates to 6.1 weeks a year.
New statistics from smile.co.uk show surfing the net is becoming an everyday activity for many people, with the average person spending 19.6 hours a week on the web.
Email is named as the most useful online activity by 23% of respondents, while 20% use their broadband connection for internet banking.
"In the current economic climate, banking online does provide added benefits, such as being able to monitor the money coming in and going out of accounts, which makes budgeting and planning finances much simpler," says John Barker, Head of Smile.
Social networking is growing in popularity, the statistics reveal, with an average of 42 minutes per day for men and 36 minutes for women spent on sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
A recent report from Ofcom confirmed these findings, saying that in 2007, people spent an average of seven hours and nine minutes a day using an array of communications services - up by six minutes from 2002. Compare broadband packages online now.