The 'greatest generation' still MIA when it comes to Internet

While 85 percent of US adults have regular access to the Web, 15 percent of people still don't go online.



For some, it must be hard to imagine a world without the Internet. But, 15 percent of US adults are living without the World Wide Web today.
A new study by the Pew Internet and American Life Project details who these non-Internet users are. Not surprisingly, the majority of people who don't go online are elderly adults.

  

 

Forty-four percent of people 65 and older are non-Internet users; and 62 percent of the so-called G.I. generation, or the "greatest generation," age 77 and older, don't use the Web. For comparison, only 2 percent of people between the ages of 18 and 29 are offline. These younger non-Internet users typically don't have the income to buy a computer and pay for monthly broadband access.

While some non-Internet users say they would like to go online, many say they don't want access to the Web. Thirty-four percent of non-Internet users think the Web isn't relevant to them, 32 percent say it's too difficult to use, 19 percent say it's too expensive, and 7 percent simply don't have physical access to the Internet.