Tablet devices aren’t just changing the amount of information that users read, they’re also changing the kinds of information, according to a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism about the online habits of tablet users.
The study, carried out in association with the Economist Group, established that 11% of American adults now own a tablet computer of some kind, and of that number, 77% use their tablets daily, spending around 90 minutes per day on the device. The three most common uses for that time, according to those surveyed, are general online browsing (67% of respondents admitted to that), reading and answering email (54%) and consuming news (53%).
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The rise in the importance of news consumption compared with those using laptop or desktop computers is underscored by the fact that 77% of tablet users say that they are now spending more time getting news than they did before they had a tablet, with 33% saying that they are getting news from new sources since using a tablet, and 42% confirming that they are also reading longer and more in-depth stories on tablet devices than they would on a computer.
Forty percent of users still access news reports through internet browsers, with only 21% preferring apps (the remainder either use both equally, or are unsure which has the edge), with two thirds of the 1,159 adults taking part in the study admitting some reluctance towards the idea of paying extra for a news source, whether app or subscription to a website (only 14% of tablet users currently do so).
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Graeme McMillan is a reporter at TIME. Find him on Twitter at @Graemem or on Facebook at Facebook/Graeme.McMillan. You can also continue the discussion on TIME’s Facebook page and on Twitter at @TIME.