• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 3, 2014

According to the first in a series of demographic snapshots of technology use and adoption among different groups of adults in the United States, this report, by Aaron Smith, on African Americans and technology says that African Americans have long been less likely than whites to use the internet and to have high speed broadband access at home, and that continues to be the case.

Today, African Americans trail whites by seven percentage points when it comes to overall internet use (87% of whites and 80% of blacks are internet users), and by twelve percentage points when it comes to home broadband adoption (74% of whites and 62% of blacks have some sort of broadband connection at home). At the same time, blacks and whites are on more equal footing when it comes to other types of access, especially on mobile platforms.

In addition, the gap between whites and blacks when it comes to traditional measures of internet and broadband adoption is more pronounced among certain demographic subgroups than among others. Specifically, older African Americans, as well as those who have not attended college, are significantly less likely to go online or to have broadband service at home compared to whites with a similar demographic profile. African Americans age 65 and older have especially low adoption rates compared with whites. Just 45% of black seniors are internet users, and 30% have broadband at home (among white seniors, 63% go online and 51% are broadband adopters).

On the other hand, young, college-educated, and higher-income African Americans are just as likely as their white counterparts to use the internet and to have broadband service at home. 86% of African Americans ages 18-29 are home broadband adopters, as are 88% of black college graduates and 91% of African Americans with an annual household income of $75,000 or more per year. These figures are all well above the national average for broadband adoption, and are identical to whites of similar ages, incomes, and education levels.

Overall, 73% of African American internet users, and 96% of those ages 18-29, use a social networking site of some kind. African Americans have exhibited relatively high levels of Twitter use with 22% of online blacks as Twitter users, compared with 16% of online whites.

Younger African Americans in particular have especially high rates of Twitter use. 40% of 18-29 year old African Americans who use the internet say that they use Twitter. That is 12 percentage points higher than the comparable figure for young whites (28% of whom are Twitter users).

In contrast to internet use and broadband adoption, blacks and whites are equally likely to own a cell phone of some kind, and also have identical rates of smartphone ownership. 92% of black adults are cell phone owners, and 56% own a smartphone of some kind. Cell phone ownership is much more common than internet use among older African Americans. Just 45% of African Americans ages 65 and older use the internet, but 77% are cell phone owners (most of these seniors own basic cell phones, as only 18% are smartphone owners). Overall, 72% of all African Americans, and 98% of those between the ages of 18 and 29, have either a broadband connection or a smartphone.

Digital Usage, White vs. African American (% of adults in each group)
	Internet		Broadband at Home		Own Smartphone
Segment	White	Black	White	Black	White	Black
Total 18+	87%	80%	74%	62%	53%	56%
Gender
Male	87	81	74	60	55	54
Female	86	80	73	63	51	58
Age
18-29	99	98	85	86	79	85
30-49	96	92	84	71	69	67
50-64	86	70	73	49	46	41
65+	63	45	51	30	18	18
Education
HS Grad or less	74	63	55	39	38	36
College	92	94	81	76	58	71
College Plus	97	97	90	88	67	75
HH Income
< $30K	74	75	54	50	34	48
$30K-75K	91	87	78	72	53	64
$75K +	98	98	91	91	74	81
Source: PEW Research Center, Jan 2014

For the complete report, please visit here, and for charts, graphs and tables, please go here.