A snapshot of life on the Internet. Bloomberg Boot Camp, a report on today's technology. It is called the World Internet Project... .and the idea is to track the social, cultural and economic impact of the Internet. It's coordinated by the Center for Communication Policy at UCLA, where director Jeffrey Cole proclaims...

"We think that the Internet, potentially, its influence, will dwarf that of television."

In the U.S., the Center is studying 21 hundred households. The results this year...

"One of the most interesting trends we saw this year was the enormous growth in the perception of the Internet as a medium of information. But no growth, totally flat growth in the perception of the Internet as a medium of entertainment.

There, the television set is still king. But... net surfers are watching less...

"Some of the time for the Internet comes from television. Internet users watch anywhere from 28 to 32 percent less television, although we're finding tremendous growth in multi-tasking. In people who while they're online or instant messengering are listening to the radio, watching television or talking on the phone."

Cole says the digital divide, at least in the United States, is disappearing. The diversity of people on the Internet reflects the entire population. And...

"Those who go on the Internet do not put their social lives at risk. People who are on the Internet do not sleep less, do not get less exercise or sports, are not bleary eyed and fat... or any fatter than the rest of the country."

Jeffrey Cole of the Center for Communication Policy at UCLA. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.