This shouldn't surprise anybody. Anecdotally speaking, most old folks I know (of) watch television, read physical newspapers, and call/write/see people. What do they need the internet for? I'm -- if anything -- surprised the number isn't higher.
Lol at you missing the qualifier "and no use case for it in their environmnent/culture".
Everybody knows avid users at 75+ or 10-, you haven't discovered something knew. But there are whole countries/areas/cultures where e.g. the majority of 75+ have no internet use, and no interest in getting any. You know, in the world, not in the US.
Absolutely - this article doesn't claim otherwise. Disproportionately (by a large margin) they don't, but even so about two-thirds of the 65+ age group does use the internet. (See the age chart about halfway down the article.)
My dad doesn't use the Internet. Not on principle or anything, but he grew up without it, has friends but meets them in person or talks on the phone, same as he has for the past 40 years. He's retired now, but never needed it working as a skilled tradesman with a county job. In retirement, he still builds stuff, but physical stuff. No need for Internet.
My ex-wife's mom also didn't use the Internet, but she was a schizophrenic who believed the FBI was following her around her entire life and has spent much of the past 40 years institutionalized.
So those are at least two very different types of people, and that's just people living in big cities. I'm sure there are still a fair number of rural people who couldn't make much use of the Internet even if they wanted to.
Another ex of mine grew up on a farm in Amish country. Not Amish, but all the neighbors were. They didn't use Internet.
Just because someone decides not to learn the Internet doesn't mean that they're not learning a bunch of other things. Like reading printed books, magazines, being part of clubs, etc. It also doesn't mean that they don't have a need to connect with people. They probably do it over the telephone or in person (or even through handwritten letters).
The older generations went through many decades living without the internet. Do you really think that the internet is necessary (or even desirable) for them to live productive and happy lives?
I wonder whether it counts people who use internet, but don't know it. My grandma uses her phone to chat with me, check the weather, recipes and news. But if you ask her whether she uses internet or not - she'd say no and she has no use for it.
I liked this story a lot. The statistic about 6.4 million over 65, presumably in the UK (total pop. 61 mil) who haven't ever used the Internet was quite shocking.
Constraining the discussion to America, you’d be far more wrong to assume someone doesn't use the internet[1][2] or a cellphone.[3][4]
[1] http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/03/05/some-america... - Only 11% of American adults don’t use the internet. Of 18-24 year olds, only 2% don’t. 2%. Holding narrowly onto your assertion, the numbers are higher for poor, rural, elderly and non-high school graduates.
Shopping at mega corps? Well, it’s well documented that Walmart has done a good job of decimating local economies and there is definitely a homogenization of retail options in the US - but even if you don’t shop at one of them, if you use a credit or debit card, a mega-corp is tracking you. Doubly so if you use a smartphone.
I think a lot of people just don’t like the internet that much. My girlfriend certainly wouldn’t use the internet given the choice, she’s in her mid 20s, with a postgrad degree from a top uni, but really only checks her email once every two days.
It’s not just exclusive to old people. There is a cadre of young people who think that the internet is just stupid noise. You obviously just don’t hear from them much.
I’m not quite as extreme as her, but I don’t have any social media and I use the internet nearly only for work. Hacker news is the only thing I really comment on.
tl;dr: Internet non-adoption is linked to a number of demographic variables, but is strongly connected to age – with older Americans continuing to be one of the least likely groups to use the internet. Today, 25% of adults ages 65 and older report never going online.
"And a huge chunk of the population (over 30 percent) never go online at all—less because they're retired and not interested; more often because they can't afford the prices."
From the survey, the main reasons given for no internet use at any location are...
Don't Need/Not Interested: 47.2%
No Computer or Computer Inadequate: 22.3%
Too Expensive: 18.6%
Lack of Skill: 4.3%
Can Use Somewhere Else: 1.4%
Other: 5.5%
To me, it looks like more people don't go online because they aren't interested (47.2%) than because they can't afford it (22.3%+18.6% = 40.9%).
Of Americans without internet access (31.3% of the population) only 18.6% go without because of the cost of access. That's just 5.8% of population who can't afford access, which seems like a very small fraction to me. Now, slightly more of those without access attribute it to a lack of a computer, but this isn't something that can be fixed through the market for internet access.
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