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  Tuesday, April 22, 2003


The Internet has become quite ubiquitous. Whether people are at work, at home, in an airport or a coffee shop, being tethered to our global library and communication network has become a part of daily life.  According to a new survey by the Pew Internet Project, forty-two percent of Americans still don't use the Internet and the majority of them do not believe they ever will.

Pew Internet Project tracking data show a flattening of the overall growth of the Internet population since late 2001. Internet penetration rates have hovered between 57% and 61% since October 2001, rather than the steady climb shown in prior years. According to the report, one possible explanation for this leveling trend is that the number of people dropping offline roughly equals the number of newcomers who come online each month. The lack of growth might also be tied to a struggling economy that leaves some families worried about household finances. Or it may be that we have reached a point where the adoption curve has peaked and the market is no longer working to bring online new groups of Internet users.

The report focuses on several new findings about those who say they do not use the Internet:

Net Evaders: 20% of non-Internet users live with someone who uses the Internet from home. Some of these self-described non-users exploit workarounds that allow them to use the Internet by having email sent and received by online family members and by having others in their home do online searches for information they want. Others proudly reject the Internet and proclaim their independence from the online world.

Net Dropouts: 17% of non-Internet users were once users. Most of them are dropouts because of technical problems such as broken computers or problems with their Internet Service Provider. This number of Net Dropouts has increased from the last time the Pew Internet & American Life Project asked about dropouts in April 2000. At that time, 13% of non-users were Net Dropouts.

Truly Disconnected: Some 24% of Americans are truly offline; they have no direct or indirect experience with the Internet. Internet access is also fluid for another reason. Between a quarter and half of current Internet users say they have dropped offline for an extended period at one point or another in their online life. To be sure, some users have progressed smoothly from non-use to steady use with few, if any interruptions. But the Project’s latest data show that for many others, the road to Internet use is paved with bumps and turnarounds brought on by economic difficulties, waning interest in going online, or more pressing demands on their time.


11:58:47 PM    comment []


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