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Study shows Pittsburgh fifth most-wired city for mothers

Wednesday, May 08, 2002

By Donald I. Hammonds, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

With kids to watch, errands to run, meetings to attend, projects to complete and husbands with whom to coordinate schedules, moms everywhere are pushed to the limit.

But thanks to the Internet, they're able to push right back, getting their lives organized and their households to run more efficiently -- and in few other places is that more true than right here in Pittsburgh.

Pittsburgh is the fifth-most "Mom-wired" cities among 20 of the nation's largest markets, according to an analysis done for America Online. Pittsburgh mothers spend an average of 19 hours and 58 minutes each week on the Internet, said Digital Marketing Services Inc., which conducted a survey of 8,000 mothers for the Internet and entertainment giant.

The leader was Charleston, S.C., where mothers on the average devote 21 hours and eight minutes to the Internet, the survey found.

For Maryann McCafferty of Fox Chapel, the opportunity to use the Internet came up for a reason common to most mothers -- children.

"The kids were in school and I got sick of watching them use it and decided to use it myself, so I taught myself how," she said. "As the kids got older, I used it for e-mail and kept getting more adventurous. And I now use it a little bit every day. Sometimes it's things I want to learn from research online, or just for e-mail."

The Internet has become especially important because the McCaffertys in July will move from Pittsburgh to Louisville, Ky., where her husband, Michael, will be a surgeon at the University of Louisville's medical school, she said.

"I looked at houses online, and my kids use it to get information. I even researched my son's new high school, and basically used up all the sites on Louisville. So we knew a lot about the city even before making the first visit."

The survey also countered some stereotypes about who uses the Internet the most. For instance, it's popular to think that children and teen-agers tie up the home computer most often.

Not so, according to the survey. Mothers who use the Internet spend on the average about 16 hours and 52 minutes each week online, compared with 12 hours and 17 minutes spent by teens on the Internet.

The other stereotype suggests that adults -- particularly mom -- are "know nothings" when it comes to using the computer and the Internet. But in fact, seven in 10 mothers said they are as tech savvy if not more so than their companions or their children.

Not surprisingly, 91 percent of those surveyed say the Internet makes their lives easier by saving them time, with 57 percent estimating their time savings at about two hours weekly.

"Wired moms and the Internet are a perfect fit, whether they're at home or in the workplace," said Regina Lewis, AOL Online adviser. "At its heart, the online medium is about two things -- convenience and communication -- that are central to moms' daily lives."