POLICY PAPER WRITING
MODULE # 10
...
THE DIGITAL DIVIDE: SOCIAL
CONSEQUENCES OF INTERNET USE
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The
Internet is becoming an increasingly vital tool in our information society.
More Americans are going online to conduct such day-to-day activities as
business transactions, personal correspondence, research and
information-gathering, and shopping. Each year, being digitally connected
becomes ever more critical to economic, educational, and social advancement.
Now that a large number of Americans regularly use the Internet to conduct
daily activities, people who lack access to those tools are at a growing
disadvantage. Therefore, raising the level of digital inclusion -- by
increasing the number of Americans using the technology tools of the digital
age -- is a vitally important national goal.
This
report, Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion, is the fourth
in the Falling
Through the Net series. In this report, we measure the extent of digital
inclusion by looking at households and individuals that have a computer and an
Internet connection. We measure the digital divide, as we have before, by
looking at the differences in the shares of each group that is digitally connected.
For the first time, we also provide data on high-speed access to the Internet,
as well as access to the Internet and computers by people with disabilities.
The
data show that the overall level of U.S. digital inclusion is rapidly
increasing:
·
The
share of households with Internet access soared by 58%, rising from 26.2% in
December 1998 to 41.5% in August 2000.
·
More
than half of all households (51.0%) have computers, up from 42.1% in December
1998.
·
There
were 116.5 million Americans online at some location in August 2000, 31.9
million more than there were only 20 months earlier.
·
The
share of individuals using the Internet rose by 35.8%, from 32.7% in December
1998 to 44.4% in August 2000. If growth continues at that rate, more than half
of all Americans will be using the Internet by the middle of 2001.
The
rapid uptake of new technologies is occurring among most groups of Americans,
regardless of income, education, race or ethnicity, location, age, or gender,
suggesting that digital inclusion is a realizable goal. Groups that have
traditionally been digital "have nots" are now making dramatic gains:
·
The
gap between households in rural areas and households nationwide that access the
Internet has narrowed from 4.0 percentage points in 1998 to 2.6 percentage
points in 2000. Rural households are much closer to the nationwide Internet
penetration rate of 41.5%. In rural areas this year, 38.9% of the households
had Internet access, a 75% increase from 22.2% in December 1998.
·
Americans
at every income level are connecting at far higher rates from their homes,
particularly at the middle income levels. Internet access among households
earning $35,000 to $49,000 rose from 29.0% in December 1998 to 46.1% in August
2000. Today, more than two-thirds of all households earning more than $50,000
have Internet connections (60.9% for households earning $50,000 to $74,999 and
77.7% for households earning above $75,000).
·
Access
to the Internet is also expanding across every education level, particularly
for those with some high school or college education. Households headed by
someone with "some college experience" showed the greatest expansion
in Internet penetration of all education levels, rising from 30.2% in December
1998 to 49.0% in August 2000.
·
Blacks
and Hispanics, while they still lag behind other groups, have shown impressive
gains in Internet access. Black households are now more than twice as likely to
have home access than they were 20 months ago, rising from 11.2% to 23.5%.
Hispanic households have also experienced a tremendous growth rate during this
period, rising from 12.6% to 23.6%.
·
The
disparity in Internet usage between men and women has largely disappeared. In
December 1998, 34.2% of men and 31.4% of women were using the Internet. By
August 2000, 44.6% of men and a statistically indistinguishable 44.2% of women
were Internet users.
·
Individuals
50 years of age and older -- while still less likely than younger Americans to
use the Internet -- experienced the highest rates of growth in Internet usage
of all age groups: 53% from December 1998 to August 2000, compared to a 35%
growth rate for individual Internet usage nationwide.
Nonetheless,
a digital divide remains or has expanded slightly in some cases, even while
Internet access and computer ownership are rising rapidly for almost all
groups. For
example, the August 2000 data show that noticeable divides still exist between
those with different levels of income and education, different racial and
ethnic groups, old and young, single and dual-parent families, and those with
and without disabilities.
·
Persons
with a disability are only half as likely to have access to the Internet as
those without a disability: 21.6% compared to 42.1%. And while just under 25%
of those without a disability have never used a personal computer, close to 60%
of those with a disability fall into that category.
·
Among
those with a disability, people who have impaired vision and problems with
manual dexterity have even lower rates of Internet access and are less likely
to use a computer regularly than people with hearing and mobility problems.
This difference holds in the aggregate, as well as across age groups.
·
Large
gaps also remain regarding Internet penetration rates among households of
different races and ethnic origins. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have
maintained the highest level of home Internet access at 56.8%. Blacks and
Hispanics, at the other end of the spectrum, continue to experience the lowest household
Internet penetration rates at 23.5% and 23.6%, respectively.
·
Large
gaps for Blacks and Hispanics remain when measured against the national average
Internet penetration rate.
--
The divide between Internet access rates for Black households and the national
average rate was 18.0 percentage points in August 2000 (a 23.5% penetration
rate for Black households, compared to 41.5% for households nationally). That
gap is 3.0 percentage points wider than the 15.0 percentage point gap that
existed in December 1998.
--
The Internet divide between Hispanic households and the national average rate
was 17.9 percentage points in August 2000 (a 23.6% penetration rate for
Hispanic households, compared to 41.5% for households nationally). That gap is
4.3 percentage points wider than the 13.6 percentage point gap that existed in
December 1998.
--
With respect to individuals, while about a third of the U.S. population uses
the Internet at home, only 16.1% of Hispanics and 18.9% of Blacks use the
Internet at home.
--
Differences in income and education do not fully account for this facet of the
digital divide. Estimates of what Internet access rates for Blacks and Hispanic
households would have been if they had incomes and education levels as high as
the nation as a whole show that these two factors account for about one-half of
the differences.
·
With
regard to computer ownership, the divide appears to have stabilized, although
it remains large.
--
The August 2000 divide between Black households and the national average rate
with regard to computer ownership was 18.4 percentage points (a 32.6%
penetration rate for Black households, compared to 51.0% for households
nationally). That gap is statistically no different from the gap that existed
in December1998.
--
Similarly, the 17.3 percentage point difference between the share of Hispanic
households with a computer (33.7%) and the national average (51.%) did not
register a statistically significant change from the December 1998 computer
divide.
·
Individuals
50 years of age and older are among the least likely to be Internet users. The
Internet use rate for this group was only 29.6% in 2000. However, individuals
in this age group were almost three times as likely to be Internet users if
they were in the labor force than if they were not.
·
Two-parent
households are nearly twice as likely to have Internet access as single-parent
households (60.6% for dual-parent, compared to 35.7% for male-headed households
and 30.0% for female-headed households). In central cities, only 22.8% of
female-headed households have Internet access.
·
Even
with broadband services, a relatively new technology used by only 10.7% of
online households, there are disparities. Rural areas, for example, are now
lagging behind central cities and urban areas in broadband penetration at 7.3%,
compared to 12.2% and 11.8%, respectively.
Americans
are using the Internet in the following ways:
·
E-mail
remains the Internet's 'killer application'-79.9% of Internet users reported using
e-mail.
·
Online
shopping and bill paying are seeing the fastest growth.
·
Low
income users were the most likely to report using the Internet to look for
jobs.
·
The
August 2000 data show that schools, libraries, and other public access points
continue to serve those groups that do not have access at home. For example,
certain groups are far more likely to use public libraries to access the
Internet, such as the unemployed, Blacks, and Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders.
Internet
access is no longer a luxury item, but a resource used by many. Overall, the
findings in this report show that there has been tremendous progress in just 20
months, but much work remains to be done. Computer ownership and Internet
access rates are rapidly rising nationwide and for almost all groups.
Nonetheless, there are still sectors of Americans that are not adequately
digitally connected. Until everyone has access to new technology tools, we must
continue to take steps to expand access to these information resources.