
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, May 24, 1994                   TAG: 9405240098
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

STUDY FINDS COMPUTERS IN 1 OUT OF 3 U.S. HOMES

Men channel-surf more than women. Hardly anybody uses a TV for just getting broadcast stations, but having more programming choices doesn't necessarily make people more satisfied. Almost all Americans with children have VCRs, which they use more for playing tapes than recording.

This is the portrait of how Americans use electronic devices for work and play as revealed Monday in a national study conducted by the Times Mirror Center for the People and the Press.

The survey found that the affluent, the educated and the young use computers more than the less privileged, less educated and older Americans. But, among younger users, men and women use them about equally.

Also, frequent computer users read more books, magazines and newspapers, listen to more radio and belong to more groups than other people. And more than half of all those whose computers have a modem do some of their work at home.

``The survey points out how integrated computer technology is becoming in people's lives,'' said Andrew Kohut, director of the center.

The study, which surveyed a representative sample of 3,700 Americans, found that one out of three households owns a computer and 23 million adults use them every day.

The study found people under 50 use computers more than those over 50 ``but the only significant misgivings about technology were expressed by people 65 and older - 39 percent disliked or had mixed feelings about computers but 93 percent of them do not use computers.''

by CNB