• by Masha Geller , April 16, 2003

According to a new report from Pew Internet & American Life Project, there is far more fluidity in the Internet population than most analysts had previously imagined - about a quarter of Americans live lives that are quite distant from the Internet, having never been online. What's even more incomprehensible to us web addicts is that many Americans who do not use the Internet now were either users in the past and gave up the habit or they live in homes with Internet connections.

Pew says that 20% of non-Internet users live in wired homes and yet remain offline. About 17% of the current group of non-users are online dropouts (formerly used the Internet but no longer do) and over a quarter of current Internet users report that at one time or another in their online lives, they dropped offline for an extended period.

Amanda Lenhart, the Research Specialist at the Project who authored the new report, says that 24% of Americans remain truly unconnected to the online world. They have never tried going online and are often quite removed from the connected population.

Not surprisingly, there are still pronounced gaps in Internet use along several demographic lines: Older Americans are much less wired than younger Americans; minorities are less connected than whites, those with modest amounts of income and education are less wired than those with college educations and household incomes over $75,000, and rural Americans lag behind suburban and urban Americans in the online population.

The survey also found a person's sense of personal empowerment can make a difference in the decision to go online or not: those who feel less in control of their lives are less likely to go online.

Disabilities also keep some Americans from using the Internet. Almost three quarters of disabled Americans do not go online, and 28% of them said their disability or impairment made it difficult or impossible to go online. Many lack the resources to go online.

About 40% of non-users think they will go online some day, and 56% believe they will never go online.