Most people in the civilized world agree that the internet has revolutionized how we communicate with friends and family, how we study, how we work, how we shop, and how we enjoy our free time. But a new survey has found that 15 percent (15%) of American adults still don’t spend time on the internet.
Who’s not on the internet you may ask? The Pew Research Center conducted the survey in 2013, and after analyzing the data, the researchers can now inform that people who don’t use the internet are either senior adults, people living in rural areas, individuals with a low income and / or little education.
Not all the 37 million people who are offline share the sane race or the same class. The survey found that about a fifth, or 20 percent (20%), of all African Americans don’t use the internet.
Twenty-five percent (25%) of people who earn less than $30.000 per year also reject the internet, and the same can be said for 24 percent (24%), or almost a quarter, of people living in rural areas. As for those who never got around to finishing high school, a third of them stay off the internet.
What this means is that one in six (1 in 6) American adults have never used the internet to read about the world they live in, find a job, make a friend, learn new skills, play a game or benefit from a discount.
When asked why they’re not using the internet, 19 percent (19%) of the participants answered that they can’t afford to pay for the service (some didn’t even own a computer), an astonishing 34 percent (34%) answered that they don’t see the internet as something interesting, and 32 percent (32%) answered that they found the internet too complicated to use.
Many companies, institutions and federal agencies have made it their priority to help these people join the rest of the world on the internet. On one hand there is a profit to be made as both internet providers and commercial brands would benefit from reaching more individuals.
But on the other hand, access to the internet would improve the lives of these people. They could educate themselves on an infinite number of topics, earn a living (possibly a higher income), read the news while they’re still relevant, and stay connected to any friends or family members who may be living in another state or in another country altogether.
One such program was recently launched by the Federal Communications Commission. The agency wants to subsidize Internet plans for people with a low income and has already expanded its broadband funding by $1 million when it comes to schools and libraries
The Department of Housing and Urban Development is also working alongside Google, Sprint, and several other internet providers in order to bring discount broadband services into public housing projects.
It’s important to note that progress has been made as almost 50 percent (50%) of United States citizens were not using the internet back in the year 2000.
Overall, men and women who avoided the internet shared the same percentage. Fourteen percent (14%) of European Americans were still offline, 20 percent (20%) of African Americans were still offline, 18 percent (18%) of Hispanics were still offline, and 5 percent (5%) of Asians were still offline.
From an age related perspective, only 3 percent (3%) of those aged 18 to 29 were still offline, 6 percent (6%) of those aged 30 to 49 were also offline, 19 percent (19%) of those aged 50 to 64 could say the same thing, and 39 percent (39%) of those aged 65 or older stayed away from the internet
Thirty-three percent (33%) of those who had not finished high school were not internet users, 23 percent (23%) of those who had finished high school were not internet users, 9 percent (9%) of those who had not finished college were not internet users, and 4 percent (4%) of those who had finished college were not internet users.
While 10 million of the 37 million internet non-users were willing to start using the service for the right price, 27 million of them still could not think of a reason why they would ever want to spend time on the internet.
Image Source: skytopper.com
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.