Digitalization no longer only describes new possibilities, but also brings about a profound transformation of our everyday lives. The Digital Life Index (DLI) is made up of five areas: Shopping, Communication, Information, Appreciation & Entertainment. The DLI has been rising constantly since the survey began. Compared to the last measurement, the Digital Life Index has risen by 7 percent and currently stands at just under 36 percent.
The most impressive manifestation of digitalization is in the everyday lives of the youngest: among 15-19 year olds, the overall index across all areas is 49%. Compared to the over 50s (23%), this is more than twice as high a level of digitalization.
While information procurement recorded the highest increase in the last measurement period, the areas of online shopping and communication currently have the highest growth rates. Compared to the last survey in fall 2009, the proportion of people who have shopped online in the last month has increased by almost 20%. This means that the "digital shopping" sub-index now stands at 44%. The 30-49 age group in particular is responsible for this increase. Significantly more than half of this age group had already made at least one online purchase in the four weeks prior to the survey, which corresponds to an increase of 24% compared to the last survey. Among the over-50s, around a quarter had already shopped online in the previous month.
The study also shows which product categories are mainly purchased online today. As in the previous surveys, the leading category here is entertainment (music, ringtones, films, games, etc.): Just under a sixth of all respondents have made such purchases online, followed by clothing, electronic devices and travel, as well as flight and train tickets. Online shopping for clothing recorded the largest increase: Whereas in the first two surveys, around 5% of respondents bought clothes online, this figure has now doubled to 10%.
Newspapers and television inform older people, young people rely on the InternetIn the population as a whole, newspapers are still the most important source of information for daily current affairs, ahead of television, the internet and radio, but there are clear differences between the age groups. While newspapers and TV are still clearly the information sources of choice for the over 50s, the Internet is already cited as the most important source of information for 15-19 year olds almost as often as newspapers (namely by 50%) and therefore more often than television (28%). Among 20-29 year olds, the Internet is already as important as television in this context (38%), but newspapers remain the most important daily source of information in this age group (52%).
Significant differences between income brackets and genders Across all areas of DLI, men have a significantly higher level of digitalization than women. The differences are clearest when looking at gender-specific information behavior (for two out of five men, a digital information source is now the most important medium for finding out about daily current affairs, while this is only the case for around a quarter of women).
The gender differences are particularly narrow in the area of entertainment. Here, men show only a slightly greater preference for digital than women. The dependence of the degree of digitalization on income is also clear. Unsurprisingly, the proportion of people who shop online is higher among high-income earners. However, the corresponding trend in the areas of communication and information is striking. For example, almost twice as many people in the group with over CHF 9,000. gross household income communicated via digital tools on the day before the survey (82 percent) than in the group of people with an income of up to CHF 6,000 (45 percent).
For young people, social networks are more important than emailCompared to 6% in the first and 10% in the second survey, 12% of all people in the current study had already used social networks for communication on the day before the survey. It is particularly the youngest Swiss people whose lives would be unthinkable without social networks: Just under half of 15-19-year-olds state that they communicated via social networks on the day before the survey. That is almost twice as many as used email the day before. This corresponds to a growth rate of 60 percent compared to the last survey. Among the older age groups, email remains the digital means of communication of choice for the time being.
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