According to research firm Parks Associates roughly one-fifth of all U.S. households are disconnected from the Internet and have never used e-mail. Apparently they called 20 million households and asked them if they had Internet Access. (Had they gone door to door that number would have been way higher as I can imagine that a high percentage of people that don’t have a phone in their houses also don’t have Internet.)
John Barrett, director of research at Parks Associates is quoted:
“Nearly one out of three household heads has never used a computer to create a document. These data underscore the significant digital divide between the connected majority and the homes in the unconnected minority that rarely, if ever, use a computer. Many people just don’t see a reason to use computers and do not associate technology with the needs and demands of their daily lives”
There is hope though as 7 percent of the 20 million disconnected homes plan to get connected within the next 12 months.
Werner Vogels at The Next Web Conference 2008
Last Friday we had dinner with Werner Vogels, CTO Amazon, who told us how dangerous it is to ignore users who still use 800×600. One guest said “It is just too much work to design your website in such a way that it works on all resolutions. You should just ignore the older browsers and systems and make sure everything works for 98% of your users”.
Vogels replied that Amazon currently has over 80 million members, that lots of those come to the service because of its low pricing. Many Amazon customers are very price aware and that Amazon is also attractive for customers with lower incomes. If he would ignore even a few percent of his customers that would come down to millions of disappointed users.
When you are surrounded by geeks and early adopters it is easy to forget that not everybody own the latest MacBook Pro, a speedy broadband connection and a 23 inch monitor. We are very focused on what the Next Web will look like and are always looking ahead. Just remember that sometimes it pays to look back a bit too…
I often fear that topics on the internet such as politics is “in the loop” to a too-select socio-demographic segment of the population. I run a citizen-activism blog and it pains me to believe I’m not reaching much of the lower-income minority. It is heartening to know that many of those go to the public library, get computer assistance from agencies and use their friends’ computers if they feel a need to do so.
Hi David, it is true that more people access the web via connections other than their home connection. They might not have a DSL subscription but surf the web from the office or share a connection with their neighbors. I personally shared a connection with my downstairs neighbors for 3 years. They didn’t know I did the first year and then I persuaded them to upgrade their connection and share the cost. These exceptions are clearly missed in these polls.
It might also be true that some of these people don’t even know that email is called email. I know lots of people who think the Internet is called ‘Explorer’ and think it starts with a section called Google.
Hey Boris,
Thanks again for highlighting the problem of broadband internet access in America. The situation is similar in Canada although I don’t have the latest statistics at hand.
The federal government in Canada attempted to ‘level’ the internet access playing field by providing high speed access in all public libraries and schools in Canada. In theory anyone that can access one of these facilities can use the internet for free. In fact last summer I spent HOURS working on the grass under a tree in northern Ontario where I could catch the wifi from the library. Our cabin doesn’t have highspeed and there is no hope of highspeed for the foreseable future.
We in the internet biz have to realize that what we do is completely irrelavent to those who can’t access our world. With the advances in technology dial up is no longer an adequate way to access the internet.
We have to continue to pressure government and the telecommunication companies to finish recabling the sparsely populated areas of North America in order to provide service to the people that live there.
In the meantime we have to acknowledge that nearly 30% of the population has *NO CLUE* who we are, or what we do.
Ok thanks you on bring up this topic becuase im a big fan of video games and playing against other people “online” although were i live i can only get sattilite internet which is very horrible for online gaming i wish to see the future high speed broadband or something that is fast enough because it is becoming very fustrating knowing that i couple kilometers up the road there is high speed broadabnd