Has the growth of internet use finally leveled off?
One out of five American adults does not use the internet, according to the latest study by the Pew Internet Project, which has been closely tracking the internet since 2000. Senior citizens, Spanish speakers, adults with less than a high school education, and those living in households earning less than $30,000 per year are the least likely adults to have internet access.
About half of these people said that they do not go online because they don’t think the internet is relevant to them. Most have never used the internet before, and do not 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 ten told Pew 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.
Pew says that overall internet adoption rates have now leveled off, but adults who are already online are doing more, and internet access is no longer means 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. Such gadget ownership is correlates 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 primary data here come from a Pew Internet Project tracking survey conducted by landline and cell phone, in English and Spanish, to 2,260 adults age 18 and older.
