Hobby horse blues

More than 83 percent of online Americans say they've used the 'net to find information about hobbies.

And 29 percent say they go online on a typical day for hobby-related activities, according to (pdf) research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project, MarketingCharts reports.

Online hobby-related activity is on a par with shopping, surfing the web for fun, and getting news, Pew said. "Hobby activities" can range from genealogical research, to collecting, to online gaming.

The Pew telephone survey conducted in February-March 2007 found:

• The online hobby population has grown from some 45 percent of US adults in 2005 to 59 percent in the first quarter of 2007.
• The proportion of those who on a typical day go online for hobby-related activity has increased from about 12 percent to 20 percent of all adults, during the same period.

• The figure of 83 percent of online hobbyists in March 2007 compares with Nov. 2004 findings of 77 percent of internet users' having used the internet to search for information about a hobby, and 20 percent having done so on a typical day.
• Men under age 50 and those with home broadband are among the most likely to pursue hobbies online.

• 86 percent of internet users age 18-29 and 88 percent of those age 30-49 go online to pursue hobbies.
• 77 percent of internet users age 50-64 and 62 percent of those age 65+ go online to pursue hobbies.
• 89 percent of respondents with home broadband use the internet to find information about hobbies.
• On a typical day, one-third of online men, one-third of internet users in their 20s, and 38 percent of college-educated internet users pursue hobbies online.