One-Fifth of Americans Have Still Never Used Email
A study by Park Associates reveals that 20% of heads of households in the United States have still never sent an email in their life. 18% have no Internet access. This puts the number of households without Internet access at about 20 million. The total number of people without net access would then be much higher.
Not surprisingly, the elderly and the uneducated dominate the other side of the digital railroad tracks. What is somewhat surprising is that only 7% of those who weren’t connected to the Internet claimed they planned on getting online in the next 12 months. Therefore, it’s unlikely the numbers are going to change very much anytime soon. However, the number of households not connected was 28% two years ago, so some progress is being made.
Say what you’d like about France, but they realize that the people who most benefit from Internet access are rural families, disconnected from the main hubs of information. Some experiments, such as Columbia Energy’s 1500 square mile wifi cloud in Southern Washington and Northeast Oregon, are bringing wifi access to rural areas. Just think if low education states like West Virginia had free wifi. It would open up a whole new world to people that desperately need a change in their economic fortunes, and would open up a new workforce that could compete with more aggressive countries like India and China in tech service jobs.
Technorati Tags: parks associates, internet connectivity, digital divide
