n 2023, the NEXERA Regions project celebrated its fifth edition. Thanks to the study, we know how the ways in which the inhabitants of small towns and villages in Central and North-eastern Poland use the internet have changed during this time. The changes concern all key areas of private life and work.
When we started the study in 2019, no one could have predicted that a pandemic would break out the following year that would be a real game changer when it comes to the role of the internet in everyday life. We noticed the changes instantly – it was primarily the increased time spent online and the dynamic growth in the popularity of e-services and e-entertainment. These developments were also followed by an improvement in connection parameters. Before looking at the changes in more detail, let us take a moment to describe the survey itself.
The survey associated with the project is a total of four questionnaires, consisting of dozens of questions each. We address them to four groups: residents, civil servants, business people and teachers. We ask them about their private and everyday life, work, leisure activities, as well as attitudes related to, for example, ecology. To complete the picture, we also conduct the survey on a nationwide sample. This initial description already shows that we have collected a lot of interesting material over the five years of conducting the report.
Respondents most often look for information about cooking and health on the Internet, and often find love. 53% of residents know someone who has found a life partner via the Internet. However, the survey also touches on more difficult issues, challenges, related to the development of the Internet. One of these is cyberbullying, the phenomenon of online stalking. It turns out that incidents of cyberbullying of children or youth by their peers were most frequently heard of by teachers (57%) and residents (43%), while such information was least frequently received by civil servants (23%). If we juxtapose the answers to this question of residents of the Regions with Poles in general, it turns out that residents are more aware of the challenges related to the development of the Internet than the average Pole. This is significant because they have been using the Internet on average longer than the general Polish group, although similarities can be seen in terms of the goals of online activity.
We also ask the protagonists of our report about their predictions for the future. How do they see the Internet developing in the next 5 years? Residents predict that there will be a further increase in the number of matters (e.g. official) that can be handled online. Entrepreneurs and civil servants are hoping for more efficient online document circulation. Teachers, on the other hand, expect the development of educational applications. However, the forecast with which all 4 groups of respondents generally agree is undoubtedly a further increase in the speed of the available Internet.
Speaking of the technological aspects of Internet use, the speeds of the connections used by respondents have clearly increased over the past five years. 5 years ago, a little more than 1/3 of residents responded that they use connections faster than 100 Mb/s at home, while currently this number is already 57%. It is also worth noting the growing popularity of optical fibre. If in 2020 49% of residents living within range of the network declared that they were using optical fibre, in 2023, this percentage is already as high as 61%. Coupled with the technological change is a change in the ways in which the network is used. In five years, there has been a clear increase in the number of residents who spend a lot of time online - more than six hours a day. If there were only 12% of such people in 2019, then in 2023 – already 42%. This change is primarily the aftermath of the pandemic.
It is impossible to summarise such a wide-ranging project in a short article, so we strongly encourage you to read the full report: Raport: Coraz więcej (szybkiego) internetu w życiu codziennym małych miejscowości w Polsce - InsightOut Lab
We invite you to read previous posts in the series the Analyst's View: