Here is an infographic that depicts what happens in an internet day. It goes through what happens in one second, one minute, one hour and then calculates the statistics for a day.

It’s interesting, though not – in my opinion – for the statistics in themselves. If big numbers impress you, then you will be impressed. Indeed, those whose mission it is to promote so-called 21st century skills and to prove that the current education system cannot cope with the new reality tend to use statistics like this to prove their point.

However, my view is that many of these figures are without any context. For example, the figure of 2.8 million emails sent each day. That tells us nothing in itself. I have read that around 90% of emails are spam, which means that only around 28,000 of those emails are ‘real’. That doesn’t sound quite so impressive, especially when you consider that some of them will be of the nature of “Did you receive my email?”.

However, I think these sorts of statistics could be used as a starting point for a discussion. For example, what are the consequences of sending and receiving all those emails? It’s not all rosy: for instance, people expect instant responses to emails which they didn’t in the days when people sent letters. Does that mean that decisions are taken more hastily?

Does all the data being sought and found mean that we have too much data to read properly?

Of all those internet searches, what percentage is for pornography?

A third of the world’s population are internet users. So what about the other two thirds? What are the (likely) consequences of this imbalance?

So, an interesting infographic from Internet Service Providers – but perhaps one which suggests ore questions than answers.

Thanks to InternetServiceProviders.org for this infographic.