Are you keeping up? Is it me or is technology moving so fast that it’s difficult to keep up? Almost every day something else moves on line, or a new service, gadget, or gizmo becomes available.
When I started in business the post was too heavy for the postman to carry and it was delivered by a Royal Mail van. Just ten years ago Lyn spent two hours a day opening and filing the paperwork. What a change, the tiny amount of stuff that arrives by post is almost negligible and is dealt with in five minutes. But email, well there’s another story – I typically get 350 emails a day dropping into my Inbox. Even The Royal Mail communicates with us by Email!
I think that you might find the following 2015 facts from the Office for National Statistics interesting:
• The internet was accessed every day, or almost every day, by 78% of adults (39.3 million) in Great Britain in 2015, compared with 35% (16.2 million) in 2006, when directly comparable records began
• Almost all adults aged 16 to 24 (96%) accessed the internet “on the go”, compared with only 29% of those aged 65 years and over
• Social networking was used by 61% of adults, and of those, 79% did so every day or almost every day
• In 2015, 76% of adults bought goods or services online, up from 53% in 2008. “Clothes or sports goods” were purchased by 55% of adults, making them the most popular online purchase
• In the last 3 months, 22% of adults purchased online once or twice, while 28% of adults purchased 11 or more times. Online purchases totalling £100 to £499 were made by 42% of adults who had bought online in the last 3 months
• In 2015, 86% of households in Great Britain (22.5 million) had internet access, up from 57% in 2006
The fact that you are reading this eNewsletter means that you are one of the winners but spare a thought for those who have been left behind, I really don’t know how they manage.
We are trying to keep up and this week we have launched a business Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/Interface.IFA/ – I would be really pleased if you log in and click ‘Like’.
And just to give you something to think about: in December 2014 I bought my new car on line – the first time I saw it was when I was driving it away from the Ford garage where I had arranged to pick it up.