2017 Volume 20 Issue 1 Pages 5-15
This paper follows the trends in the amount of time allocated to the consumption of the written media based on data from time budget surveys on information behavior conducted every five years in Japan under the supervision of the author. From 1995 onward, the reading time of printed newspapers, magazines, and books has steadily been dwindling. On the other hand, the amount of time allocated to the use of emails and social media on the Internet has increased. The data from our 2015 survey shows that out of all age groups, young people in their twenties allocate the largest amount of time to literal consumption of both the printed word and electronic or digital media combined. It can be asserted that young people today consume the highest amount of written characters ever in history. Cluster analysis deduced three types: printed word type, digital word type and intermediary type. The printed word type consumers entertained a sense of belonging to a high social stratification. They also showed high interest in politics and sense of political empowerment, while the intermediary type showed low interest in politics.
