Think Of The Poor Wretches! 38.3% Of All U.S. Households Cannot Access This Blog!

Figures lie and liars figure. The Census statistics prove that the 38% of the folks in the Land O'The Free and The Home O'The Brave would read this blog if only they were wired for the Internet. All of those folks must feel a nagging discomfort that something is missing from their lives. When they get hooked up, their monochrome lives will be transformed to full color. They'll have this blog to help them make it through the day. If this is (fair & balanced) dementia, so be it.

[x Salon/GigaOM]
Internet Growth
By Om Malik

We don’t quite need the U.S. Census to tell us that most (but not all) people love the Internet. Breakneck growth in the number of broadband connections, growing sales of cheap computers, and our growing reliance on modern communication tools, such as email, instant messages and Facebook, have become so pervasive that even the homeless need to be connected. That reliance has increased over the past 12 years, as shown by 2007 U.S. Census data. Here are some of the highlights from that data (which is now about 2 years old).

• 64 percent of people over 18 used the Internet in 2007 vs. 22 percent in 1997.
• 62 percent of households used the Internet at home in 2007 vs. 18 percent in 1997.
• 50.8 percent of households accessed the Internet at home over a broadband connection. Dial-up access had 10.7 percent of households.
• Alaska and New Hampshire residents had among the highest rates of Internet use from any location (home, work or public access).
• There were 38.3 percent households with no Internet use at home.

These stats, while 2 years old, are a good mile-marker that explains why we are still continuing to see growth in services such as Skype, Facebook, Twitter and Google. I wonder what the next census will look like? With 4G wireless broadband around the corner, will we even bother to ask the question: Internet access from home? More importantly, will there be anyone still dialing up for Internet access? Ω

Hat Tip: Gary Price/ResourceShelf

[Om Perkash Malik is the founder of Giga Omni Media, Inc. and executive editor for technology blog GigaOM. Malik graduated from St. Stephens’ College in New Delhi in 1986, with an honors degree in chemistry. He wrote Broadbandits: Inside the $750 Billion Telecom Heist in 2003]

Copyright © 2009 Salon Media Group, Inc.

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