A new report from the Pew Internet research group (http://macte.ch/Iabde) looks at Internet usage in the U.S. and found that:
° One in five American adults doesn’t use the internet. Spanish-speaking senior citizens, adults with less than a high school education, and those living in households earning less than $US30,000 per year are the least likely adults to have internet access.
° Among adults who don’t use the Internet, almost half say the main reason they don’t go online is because they don’t think the Internet is relevant to them. Most have never used the Internet before, and don’t have anyone in their household who does. About one in five say that they do know enough about technology to start using the Internet on their own, and only one in 10 told us that they were interested in using the Internet or email in the future.
° The 27% of adults living with disability in the U.S. today are significantly less likely than adults without a disability to go online (54% vs. 81%). Furthermore, 2% of adults have a disability or illness that makes it more difficult or impossible for them to use the Internet at all.
Though overall internet adoption rates have leveled off, adults who are already online are doing more, according to Pew Internet. And even for many of the “core” Internet activities, significant differences in use remain, generally related to age, household income, and educational attainment.
The research group says Internet access is no longer synonymous with going online with a desktop computer:Currently, 88% of American adults have a cell phone, 57% have a laptop, 19% own an e-book reader, and 19% have a tablet computer; about six in ten adults (63%) go online wirelessly with one of those devices. Gadget ownership is generally correlated with age, education, and household income, although some devices — notably e-book readers and tablets — are as popular or even more popular with adults in their thirties and forties than young adults ages 18-29.
The rise of mobile is changing the story. Groups that have traditionally been on the other side of the digital divide in basic Internet access are using wireless connections to go online. Among smartphone owners, young adults, minorities, those with no college experience, and those with lower household income levels are more likely than other groups to say that their phone is their main source of Internet access.
Even beyond smartphones, both African Americans and English-speaking Latinos are as likely as whites to own any sort of mobile phone, and are more likely to use their phones for a wider range of activities.
The primary recent data in this report are from a Pew Internet Project tracking survey. The survey was fielded from July 25-August 26, 2011, and was administered by landline and cell phone, in English and Spanish, to 2,260 adults age 18 and older.