Like the Pew Internet Project’s first typology, the Off the Network segment of the population lacks two key inputs to the digital age – an internet connection or a cell phone. This is a group of older, low-income Americans. Although some have computers (16% have either a desktop or laptop), they are not currently connected to the network (although some used to be). Perhaps for the “once connected” a tech failure wasn’t repaired, thereby driving them off the network.

In both editions of the typology, people with neither cell phones nor online access are labeled “Off the Network.” However, these are not the same individuals in each typology, making direct comparisons of the groups using the longitudinal data impossible. When this typology’s Off the Network group is compared with the past, it is to behaviors of the 2007 group to 2006, when individuals in the 2007 Off the Network group may or may not have been members of the 2006 Off the Network group.