“Nearly a quarter of Americans are offline, with no experience of the internet, a survey has found.
The Pew Internet and American Life Project studied the ever-shifting internet population in one of the world’s most wired nations. It found that the digital divide is likely to remain in place as the number of people dropping offline equals the number of new users adopting net technology. The share of the US population on the internet has hovered around the 60% mark since October 2001 and is likely to remain around that level, the researchers said. According to the US Government’s National Adult Literacy Survey, up to 23% of the population struggle so much with literacy that they have difficulty completing everyday tasks. This is likely to be a major barrier to net take-up.”