Overview

A March-May 2002 survey of the Pew Internet Project revealed a new fluidity in Internet use—detailing the habits of intermittent Internet users, Net Dropouts and Net Evaders, or those who live with Internet users but do not go online themselves. The survey also asks questions of all non-users, focusing on the barriers to and reasons behind their offline status. The research reveals that cost, physical access (particularly for persons with disabilities) and fear and embarrassment over skills or use of the technology still prove to be formidable barriers among some sub groups. Lack of desire also kept many non-users, particularly those with demographic characteristics more suggestive of Internet users, offline. Demographically, the shape of the non-user population has not changed dramatically over the past 2 to 3 years. While all groups have increased in the portion of their populations online, the overall inequalities between groups that sparked initial concern over the “digital divide” remain today.