Saying No Thanks To The Internet

from the dropouts dept

The latest research from the Pew Internet and American Life Project says that there are plenty of Americans who aren't online, and prefer it that way. Surprisingly, 17% of "unwired Americans" are "dropouts". They used to have an internet connection, but no longer do - either because their computer broke or they had problems with their ISP. Many of these folks don't mind staying offline. Another surprising finding is that, despite the talk of a "digital divide" among income classes, many of the "unwired" are middle class suburbanites who just feel that they have better things to do with their time and money than get online. They often live with someone else, though, who does have internet access in case it's suddenly needed. There are still, however, digital divide issues that prevent lower income people from accessing the internet. They still expect internet usage to grow as people become more comfortable with computers and access gets cheaper and easier to use.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    dorpus, 16 Apr 2003 @ 2:32pm

    It will take decades.

    Living on the East Coast in the late 90s, it seemed the majority of people I came across in big cities (NYC, Wash DC area) had never used the internet before. The standard response was "I prefer to talk to people in person."

    When the telephone came out, it took decades for it to be accepted as a standard method of communication. Conservatives of the time felt that telephones are "indecent", would contribute to anarchy, broken families, and communist revolutions.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.