Digital Divide Alive and Well
Pew Internet & American Life Project just a released a new survey about Parent and Teenager Internet Use, but the statistic that struck me the most was:
Of parents who live in households earning more than $75,000 a year, 98% report that they use the internet. At the lowest end of the household income spectrum (people who earn $30,000 or less), 60% of parents report that they go online.
And this:
White parents are more likely to report using the internet than black parents. Fully 88% of white parents say they use the internet at least occasionally, compared with 72% of black parents. Hispanic parents who speak English fall in between white and black parents, with 84% saying that they use the internet at least occasionally. Of the parents that use the internet, there are no statistically significant differences in terms of frequency of use according to race.
I am reminded of an earlier post, in which I wrote:
Andy Carvin of the Digital Divide Network…. says since more people are online in all socio economic sectors, the false assumption is that soon everyone will be online. Unfortunately that will not be true for a small segment of the population. As everything goes online from government services to education, they will be left out.
