The charts juxtapose four different purposes for which the Internet is used, specifically social media, online bill payment and emailings, at the same time comparing those three categories, in Australia.
What is most striking when looking at the charts is that the majority of social media usage is concentrated in the younger age brackets, while older groups prefer paying bills and emailings. It is also important to note that emailing is the main reason why users go online.
Focusing first on digital bill payment and emailing, 60% of 18-25 aged users utilize the digital platform to get their bill payment done, while the proportion of the 26-40 age group is slightly higher than that of the youngest. Furthermore, nearly 80% those who are between 40 and 60 pay their bills digitally, which is significantly more common than the 60-65 age cohort, whose proportion is approximately 65%. Remarkably, digital bill payment is the most appealing to the oldest age group, topping the chart at 80%. Regarding emailing, this chart follows a similar pattern to bill payment, with the predominance of users falling into the above 60-65 age group.
Turning to social media, nearly all users who are aged 18-25 take advantage of the Internet for social media purposes, emerging as the only age group among other charts to reach a near-total proportion. With respect to older age cohorts, particularly 26-40 and 40-60, the percentage has tapered off to over 80% and 70%, respectively. In sharp contrast to emailing and bill payment, social media holds negligible appeal for the older age brackets, with only one-fourth for those aged 60-65 and approximately one-third for those above.
In general, according to the remaining chart, although seeing an unprecedented proportion in young social media users, only over 40% of individuals go online for this reason, which is also the lowest documented among others. Paying online bills, which accounts for half, is second only to emailing, whose proportion dominates the chart at 70%.