Canadians' digital connections

They're "fast becoming a culture of technological chatterboxes," the Toronto Star reports. A recent national survey of nearly 1,100 Canadians by Angus Reid Strategies found that only 18% of people in Canada do not own a cellphone but, at the other end of the spectrum, 18% couldn't live without their mobile phone. As for email, 64% check it at least daily, and 31% "can't resist the temptation" to check email hourly. Forty percent "couldn't contemplate life without the Internet"; and 52% say Google "has made their life better"; 55% visit Web sites at least once a day; and 22% of all Canadians (and 41% of 18-to-35-year-old ones) visit social networking sites daily (25% of women "believe these networks strengthen their sense of community with others). Social-networking sites are most popular in the Atlantic provinces, the Star adds.