In computer news this week:

Lead: The Ever-Shifting Internet Population:

The Pew internet project - pewinternet.org - specializes in research on how people use the internet. They recently released their report on how many Americans don't use the internet, and here are some of their very interesting findings

While 42% of Americans say they don’t use the Internet, many of them either have been Internet users at one time or have a once-removed relationship with the Internet through family or household members.

Here are categories of Non-internet users:

· Net Evaders: 20% of non-Internet users live with someone who uses the Internet from home. Some of these self-described non-users exploit workarounds that allow them to “use” the Internet by having email sent and received by online family members and by having others in their home do online searches for information they want. Others proudly reject the Internet and proclaim their independence from the online world.

· Net Dropouts: 17% of non-Internet users were once users. Most of them are dropouts because of technical problems such as broken computers or problems with their Internet Service Provider. This number of “Net Dropouts” has increased from April 2000. At that time, 13% of non-users were Net Dropouts.

· Truly Disconnected: Some 24% of Americans are truly offline; they have no direct or indirect experience with the Internet.

· 60% of non-users know of a place in their community where Internet access is publicly available, while 76% of Internet users know of public access sites. Most of those who know of local access points say those access points are easy to reach. The most frequently identified location of public access is a library.

· 74% of non-users say they have family members and close friends who go online.

· 27% of non-users say that very few or none of the people they know go online.

The majority of non-users say they do not plan to go online

Some 56% of non-Internet users do not think they will ever go online. These people are generally the poorer, older segment of the not-online population, and are more likely to be white, female, retired and living in rural areas.

Non-users say they feel no need or desire to use the Internet, or that going online is not a good use of their time. This nonchalance and resistance is often related to a general misconception of what the Web and email have to offer. In other cases, reluctance is connected to specific obstacles, fears, or previous online experiences.

About a third of non-Internet users say the cost of computers and Internet access is a major problem for them. An even larger number of non-users said they have not gone online because they are worried about online pornography, credit card theft, and fraud. Some 29% say they don’t have time to use the Internet, and 27% say they believe the Internet is too complicated and hard to understand.

.

For Raw Bytes, This is Frank Delaney

POB 222 Spangle, Wa 99031 (509)245-3736 624-7230