Communication Technology for Social Spaces (CO3714)
How the use of the Internet in the UK compares with the use of the internet in EU
developing countries (like Greece)
Commentary
According to the data that I have received and also used in the digital scrapbook, the
UK has a different approach to the other countries in the European Union (EU)
although this depends on what age group is looked at. When creating the digital
scrapbook I decided to use the country Denmark point to compare with the UK as if I
used the EU as a whole I would get mixed results and it would be difficult to compare
between all the different countries and the UK.
One of the areas that I have looked at is that the different age groups that use the
internet, I think that it is important to clarify the users of the internet first as it will
make the other articles more understandable as they will relate to the different
audiences for example, the age range of users that use social networking sites
maybe different from the set of users that shop online.
I have also positioned the articles from left to right in the scrapbook according to the
relevance they have to the country as the UK stories have been positioned on the left
hand side of the screen whereas the Danish stories have been positioned on the
right and then the comparison articles have been placed in the centre of the
scrapbook that will overlap the other stories in order of relevance, This is why I
choose the theme and this also influenced the order in which I placed the articles.
The evidence that had been collected shows that while most of the user groups in the
UK mainly use the internet to use social networking sites and also buy and sell goods
on internet sites where as users in Denmark mostly use the internet for other
methods which includes research purposes and individual learning, for this reason
Denmark has been voted the most tech savvy when it deals with IT with 52 other
counties included in this list.
Although the common factor between the two countries is that more and more people
are logging on to the internet it doesn’t matter what age they are, or how they intend
to use the internet. There was a legal disagreement between the UK and Denmark in
2003 when complaints about a Danish company arose about how they wanted to
advertise and they did this through emailing English businesses asking them to join
which also stated that they would need to pay a subscription fee.
In conclusion with all the evidence that I have gathered it seems that he two counties
take a different stance on how they use the internet, the Danish use it for research
and find of information a lot more than they would use social networking site and this
is vice versa for the UK. This doesn’t mean that the UK is not gaining any more
knowledge or that the Danish people know more information about what can be
found on the internet this just shows that the internet can be used in two separate
ways.
Anthony Glynn
G20265562
Page 2
Communication Technology for Social Spaces (CO3714)
Information Sources Used
Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark (2007). Internet Law – Denmark Excels in the
world of IT. [online]
http://www.ibls.com/internet_law_news_portal_view.aspx?id=1879&s=latestnews
[Accessed on 17th October 2008]
BBC News. (2007) Internet use ‘Good for Brain’ [Online]
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7667610.stm [Accessed on 17th October 2008]
Culpitt, A (2007) Internet use in the UK [Online]
http://www.culpitt.co.uk/Blog/2007/09/internet-use-in-uk.html [Accessed on 17th
October 2008]
Internet World Sats (2007) Internet World Stats – Usage & Population Stats [Online]
http://www.internetworldstats.com/europa.htm#dk [Accessed on 17th October 2008]
Press Release (2007) UK social networking highest in Europe [Online]
http://www.comscore.com/press/release.asp?press=1801 [Accessed on 17th October
2008]
Eloise Pasteur (2007) UK Internet Usage – How do we compare? Just askin’ [Online]
http://www.secondlifeinsider.com/2007/08/23/uk-internet-usage-how-do-youcompare-just-askin/ [Accessed on 17th October 2008]
Telecomworldwire (2003) UK advertising authority upholds complaint against Danish
internet name service.(Advertising Standards Authority investigated NoDots
ApS)(Brief Article) [Online] http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-110965436.html
[Accessed on 17th October 2008]
Anon (2008) Internet in Denmark [Online]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_in_Denmark [Accessed on 17th October 2008]
Granger. M (2008) UK Internet on the rise [Online]
http://www.pcretailmag.com/news/30407/UK-internet-usage-on-the-rise [Accessed on
17th October 2008]
Marketing Charts (2008) How the UK internet population is based on income [Online]
http://www.marketingcharts.com/interactive/quarter-of-uks-online-population-are-itsrichest-netizens-1363/nielsen-uk-internet-population-by-incomejpg/ [Accessed on
17th October 2008]
Cheng. J (2008) Eu may regulate social networking sites over security issues
[Online] http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080527-eu-may-regulate-socialnetworking-sites-over-security-issues.html [Accessed on 17th October 2008]
Herbison. B.J (2007) Denmark Internet Service Provider List [Online]
http://herbison.com/iap_meta_list/iap_meta_list_dk.html [Accessed on 17th October
2008]
Anthony Glynn
G20265562
Page 2