Internet overload? No, survey says

Most people are happy with the Internet as a source of on-demand information, with only a small percentage hit by 'information overload,' a survey of US users showed Monday.

Some 72% of those surveyed said they liked having the Internet's resources at their fingertips, and 26% felt overwhelmed by the amount of data online.

'We have asked this 'information overload' question since the beginning of our research in 2000 and have consistently found the same thing: Americans like lots of information choices and don't feel particularly oppressed by the growing flows of material into their lives,' said Lee Rainie, Internet project director at the Pew Research Center.

'Even through all the tech change in the past generation, people say they are coping fine and relish the new options they have to get and share the information that matters to them.'

The Pew survey shows that 87% of adults who access the Internet said it has improved their ability to learn new things.

Some three-fourths of those surveyed said they are better informed about national and international news and pop culture because of the Internet.

And 67% said they are better informed about friends and 60% know more about their family from online tools.

More than seven in 10 Internet users say digital technologies have improved their ability to share their ideas and creations with others, up from 55% in 2006, the report said.

This comes with two thirds of those online using social networking sites.

The survey found 77% of adult Internet users say today's students are better informed because of online access, and just eight percent said it has made them less well-informed.

Surprisingly, the respondents under age 30 were less convinced of the Internet's value: 19% in that age group said the Internet has had little impact on students, compared with nine percent of those older than 30.

The report is based on an online survey conducted September 12-18 among a sample of 1,066 adult Internet users. The margin of error is estimated at 3.3 percentage points.