Not Everyone Is Driving Along the Information Highway

Believe it or not, there are those in the US who are not on the Internet. Although the numbers are growing, some still haven’t gotten onto the information highway. We are seeing an increase in the use of the Internet by those we consider elders, but there are still others who don’t use it.

Pew Research periodically releases a report on internet use. The last one, a Fact Tank from a couple of months ago, showed a gradual increase.  11% of Americans don’t use the internet. Who are they?explains that “[t]he size of this group has changed little over the past three years, despite ongoing government and social service programs to encourage internet adoption in underserved areas. But that 11% figure is substantially lower than in 2000, when the Center first began to study the social impact of technology. That year, nearly half (48%) of American adults did not use the internet.”

The report looks at all age groups, but since this is the elderlawprof blog, I’m interested in the internet usage by elders. The report gives us that:  “[s]eniors are the age group most likely to say they never go online. Although the share of non-internet users ages 65 and older decreased by 7 percentage points since 2016, about a third today do not use the internet, compared with only 2% of 18- to 29-year-olds.”

So basically one-third of elders still are off the information highway.  As more and more Boomers move past age 65, it will be interesting to see if that number drops or holds steady.  Our students need to understand that figure, too, since so many of them are online non-stop.