Its long been my contention that the people who embrace technology also enjoy the use of it. Consequently it has always been rather odd to me that the given wisdom of the internet states that:

Users want to get in to a website, buy, and get out again as quickly as possible

But that cant be right, can it? If a child gets a new toy then it plays and plays and plays with that toy until it is exhausted! New toys are great, and the internet is like a new toy everyday, new sites, new interests, new things that you never thought you might be able to do. Well, now you can. So, do people really just log on, quickly and efficiently get on with what they are doing, and then log off? I don't think so. I think that if you get a new toy then you play rather than leaving it in its box. So I guess I see these 'embraces of technology' - the early adopters and early mass market - spending a lot of time online rather than just dipping in and out. They love technology, so they find and invent different ways to use it. This segment, a big segment, want to stay, not get out.

I would accept, however, that cost and speed has up until recently been a big consideration. Dial-up meant slow progress, long waits and sometimes high costs to stay online all the time. In this situation, you might be quite picky about how you use the internet however keen you were. Banking, certainly yes - great time saver, researching, probably yes - where it produced a result, groceries, maybe not - long-winded and slow, rather go to the shops.

But dial up is plummeting, and broadband is now everywhere and of equivalent price if not cheaper. And so if I were an early adopter now then I'd get broadband and I'd be on all day! I get to play with my toys as much as I like for a set cost. Marvelous.

Hence The Always On Culture, with an emphasis on Culture. Whereas in 2003 I go to get my groceries offline, because it is too painful with dial up and poor fulfillment, in 2006 I don't care how long I stay because it will take less time than going to the shops. I would browse forever if the retailer could keep me there! I'm playing! I enjoy this! I want to stay! In 2003, the tick of the connection clock still nagged, but in 2006 nothing can stop us but the limits of our imaginations. We've now got the flow that we could never get before with the ticking dial up clock in the background

"Users want to get in to a website, buy, and get out again as quickly as possible"?

In 2006? Complete tosh.

Update 8th March 2006

I read in the Guardian today - "Britain Turns Off and Logs On" - that Britons now spend more time online than watching TV. This supports the cultural shift reported here.

A survey conducted on behalf of the search engine found that the average Briton spends around 164 minutes online every day, compared with 148 minutes watching television. That is equivalent to 41 days a year spent surfing the web: more than almost any other activity apart from sleeping and working.