The digital divide is apparently alive and well.
About 20 percent of all U.S. heads-of-household have never sent an e-mail, and about 20 million households, or 18 percent, are without Internet access, according to a study released earlier this week.
(Credit:
Parks Associates)
Similar percentages of respondents also indicated that they had never looked up a Web site or information on the Internet, the survey found.
Age and education were significant factors cited in the study, which was conducted by researcher Parks Associates. Half of those who have never used e-mail are older than 65 and 56 percent had no formal education beyond a high school level, the telephone survey found.
"Nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document," John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates, said in a statement. "These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer."
Just 7 percent of the 20 million households without Internet access indicated during the survey that they plan to subscribe to an Internet service within the next 12 months. However, the study noted a steady decline in the number of disconnected households when comparing findings with previous years; the 2006 survey found that 31 million households, or 29 percent, of all U.S. households were without Internet access.
"Internet connections have slowly increased in U.S. households, but getting the disconnected minority online will continue to be difficult," Barrett said in the statement. "Age and economics are important factors, but the heart of the challenge is deeper. Many people just don't see a reason to use computers and do not associate technology with the needs and demands of their daily lives."
China has captured the No. 1 ranking as the country with the greatest number of Internet users, according to a Reuters report.
The country clocked in with 221 million Internet users in February, surpassing the U.S. for the top billing, according to Reuters, which cites the Xinhua news agency's reporting of figures from the government-backed China Internet Network Information Center.
However, the Chinese government's figures do have some competition.
Market researcher ComScore told CNET News.com on Thursday that the U.S. maintains a slight lead over China, according to its March figures. The number of U.S. Internet users reached 188 million last month, verses 173 million in China, according to ComScore.
The discrepancy may be due to the length of time the two agencies track figures, a ComScore representative said. ComScore relies on data gathered on a monthly basis, while the China Internet Network Information Center collects data over a six-month period, the representative said.
And while the number of Internet users in China is high by any count, its penetration rate in relation to its population is still lower than the worldwide average. The percentage of Internet users in China is 16 percent of its population, compared with 19.1 percent on a global scale, Reuters said.
A substantial portion of Internet users in rural China rely on Internet cafes to access the Net, according to the China Internet Network Information Center.
Internet users are spending more time looking at content and less time communicating with others, according to an index of Nielsen/Net Rating statistics released by the Online Publishers Association (OPA).
In 2003, Internet users spent about 46 percent of their time communicating and 34 percent reading online content. Those habits seemed to have reversed in the last four years. From January to May 2007, about 47 percent of users' time was spent looking at content and 33 percent spent on communicating.
The change in media habits can be attributed to changes in technology over the last four years, according to OPA.
"The increased popularity of video is leading to more time being spent with online content," according to the OPA reports. Time spent communicating could also be less because more people are using instant messaging (IM), which is quicker than sending e-mail.
Search time also rose. In 2003 people spent 3 percent of their time searching, and for the 2007 period measured, they spent about 5 percent.
The OPA's Internet Activity Index seems to support the results of a study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project that was released in May.
It said that while tech personalities do vary, only a small percentage of people are actually participating in Web 2.0 activities.
- prev
- 1
- next
