Kiwi internet habits revealed… Have you looked in the online mirror recently?

A staggering 41% of New Zealanders feel stressed when they don’t have access to the internet, according to new findings by financial research and ratings company Canstar Blue.

Canstar New Zealand General Manager, Derek Bonnar says, the most anxious are Gen Ys with 55% stating that having no internet access stresses them out.

“But when they are connected, nearly a third of Kiwis (30%) often feel guilty about how long they spend online, but aren’t motivated to do anything about the number of hours glued to their screens,” Bonnar adds.

Generation Ys (46%) are the most likely to feel guilty about hours spent on the internet, compared to 21% of Baby Boomers.

Just over a quarter (26%) of Kiwis spend more time socialising online than they do in person, with Aucklanders spending over 32 hours of their week online, nearing on the same amount of hours in a working week.

“The internet is definitely becoming ubiquitous, and not always with positive effects,” Bonnar observes.

“17% of Aucklanders say that the amount of time they spend online is negatively impacting their relationships, compared to 12% who said the same in 2014.”

More men (14%) are noticing a harmful effect on their real-life relationships than women (9%) but women are spending more time cultivating their online relationships, with 42% updating and/or checking their social media accounts more than four times a day.

More than a third of Kiwis (36%) check or update their social accounts many times a day, but those from the Bay of Plenty are the least interested in what is going on in their online worlds (27%) - Aucklanders (43%) however, are maintaining their online profiles the most often.

Across the ages, Gen Ys are the most on-pulse with their media accounts (62%) and Gen Xs (49%) and Baby Boomers (23%) are less concerned with online, social maintenance.

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Prying eyes?

A small number of Kiwis (6%) have owned up to looking at their partner’s browser history, and the younger generation are the most likely to try to keep track of their partner’s online habits (13%) compared to smaller numbers of Gen Xs (9%) and Baby Boomers (3%).

Downloads

Furthermore, a quarter of Aucklanders regularly download music and videos that they don’t pay for, and the same amount spend a large amount of their time streaming movies online.

“This seems to also be a common trend among 18-29 year olds with 43% regularly downloading music and videos for free, while nearly half (48%) stream a lot of movies online,” Bonnar adds.

“It is much less common amongst Baby Boomers who undoubtedly have acquired large CD and DVD collections over the years.”

Beat out boredom

Nearly half (48%) of Aucklanders say they waste a lot of time surfing the net out of boredom but those in the Waikato may be finding other ways to fill their time (25%.)

The internet is also a common boredom suppressor for Gen Ys, with 72% saying they use it to keep busy a lot of the time.

Additionally, 18% of New Zealanders have a naked broadband account, not packaged with a landline.

According to Bonnar, this is most common amongst Gen Ys (38%) as many people this age are in shared living situations where all of them have smart phones, removing the need for a shared landline.

“This year Slingshot have taken out the top spot for Broadband providers, beating out competition like Orcon, Vodafone NZ and Spark, with five star ratings across the board,” he adds.

“Slingshot has done a great job in maintaining their performance, upholding last year’s ratings with full marks across the categories from their very satisfied customers.”

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Broadband by region

Auckland

According to findings Aucklanders spend 4.6 hours a day online and are the most likely to look at their partners internet browsing history (9%), most likely to say that the amount of time they spend online in negatively impacting their relationships (17%) and most likely to feel guilty about how long they spend online but not change the amount of time they spend online (35%).

Not stopping there however, Aucklanders are also most likely to

• regularly download music and videos that they don’t pay for (25%)

• spend a lot of time streaming movies online (25%)

• waste a lot of time surfing the internet out of boredom (48%)

• spend more time socialising online than they do in person (33%)

• feel stressed when they don’t have access to the internet (49%)

• check/update social media more than four times a day (43%)

• to have a naked broadband account (24%)

Waikato

People from the Waikato spend 3.5 hours a day online however, and are the least likely to feel guilty about how much time they spend online (24%) and least likely to waste a lot of time surfing the internet out of boredom (25%).

Wellington

Wellingtonians spend 3.6 hours a day online.

Canterbury

Cantabrians spend 3.3 hours a day online and are also least likely to look at their partner’s browser history (3%).

Otago

Those from Otago spend 3.8 hours a day online and are the least likely to feel stressed when they don’t have access to the internet (24%).

Bay of Plenty

Those from the Bay of Plenty spend 3.5 hours a day online and are the least likely to feel that the amount of time they spend online is negatively impacting their relationships (3%).

In a complete contrast to Aucklanders, people from the area are least likely to:

• regularly download music and videos that they don’t pay for (6%)

• spend a lot of time streaming movies online (9%)

• spend more time socialising online than they do in person (19%)

• check/update social media more than four times a day (27%)

• have a naked broadband account (12%)