The Internet has become incredibly pervasive in many
aspects of Americans' lives over the last decade -- aggregated
Gallup data collected in 2002 and 2003* indicate that nearly half
of all adults (45%) now use the Internet daily.
Nonetheless, younger people still appear to feel more at home in
cyberspace than their elders do. Fifty-two percent of Americans
between the ages of 18 and 49 say they log on every day, but
frequency of daily use begins to significantly decline after age
50, and drops dramatically after age 65 -- just 17% of
Americans aged 65 and older use the Internet on a daily
basis.
Internet Activities for Every Age
Are those differences reflected in age-based patterns regarding
what people actually do in cyberspace? According to the
December 2003 survey**, Internet users' most frequent activity,
regardless of age, is reading and sending e-mail. Sixty-five
percent of adult Internet users check their e-mail frequently.
Checking up on the news and weather is the second-most popular
Internet activity overall (41% do it frequently).
How frequently one uses the Internet for different activities
varies by age. Sending and receiving e-mail, making travel plans,
playing games, shopping, and finding medical advice are done
frequently by about the same percentage of Internet users in all
age groups***. However, Internet users younger than age 50 are more
likely than older users to pay bills online, check news and
weather, and to budget personal finances. One activity -- instant
messaging (or IM) -- stands out as the domain of the youngest
Internet users. Thirty-six percent of Internet users between the
ages of 18 and 29 say they use instant messaging frequently,
compared with 18% of those in the 30- to 49-year-old age group and
12% of those 50 and older.
"Ttyl gtg," wrote Oliver Benton, a 23-year-old graphic artist
from Long Island, N.Y., at the end of an "instant message"
interview. For the uninitiated, that's IM-speak for "Talk to you
later. I have to go now." But before Benton signed off, he wrote
this about instant messaging. "I save cell minutes; I don't have to
wait for an e-mail response; it's quick and easy," he said of the
IM technology, which allows individuals to send text messages back
and forth in "real time."
Becky Steele, a 22-year-old administrative assistant from New
Jersey, says IM is a "cheap and efficient way to stay in touch,
especially with people who are far away and who you wouldn't
necessarily keep up with. It also enables you to gather your
thoughts before responding, and that's usually a good thing." When
asked why they thought the youngest adults use instant messaging
more frequently than older people do, both Benton and Steele
offered the same explanation: People in their age category often
have boring, entry-level jobs. While many can't make phone calls at
work, they can chat intermittently -- and silently -- with
their friends on the computer throughout the day.
Other Demographics
Although daily Internet use is relatively consistent among age
groups, it does vary considerably across two other demographic
categories. Men are more likely to use the Internet every day than
women are (49% vs. 40%, respectively), and rural dwellers are less
likely to go online daily (34% do so) than their suburban (49%) and
urban (47%) counterparts are.
In a sign that the "digital divide" between advantaged and
disadvantaged Americans is narrowing, aggregated data from 2002 and
2003 indicate that daily Internet use is equally common among
whites and nonwhites -- 44% of whites say they use it every day, as
do 46% of nonwhites. Public libraries have played a significant
role in that change. "Ninety-five percent of public libraries in
the United States offer free access to computers and the Internet,
often providing the only Internet access for residents of the
nation's poorest areas," according to the Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation Web site. The Gates Foundation has been actively
addressing the digital divide through financial support of their
U.S. Library Program since 1996.
Bottom Line
Regular Internet access has become the norm for an increasingly
broad spectrum of people, though older Americans tend to use it
less heavily. And the youngest Americans are virtually guaranteed
to become familiarized with the Web. According to the National
Center for Education Statistics, by the beginning of the school
year in 2001, 99% of all U.S. public schools had access to the
Internet, up from 35% in 1994.
*Results are based on aggregated data from telephone
interviews with 2,012 national adults, aged 18 and older, conducted
Dec. 11-14, 2003, and Dec. 5-8, 2002. For results based on the
total sample of national adults, one can say with 95% confidence
that the margin of sampling error is ±2 percentage
points.
**For results based on the sample of 734 Internet users from
telephone interviews conducted Dec. 11-14, 2003 -- the maximum
margin of sampling error is ±4 percentage points.
***The sample of Internet users includes 125 between the ages of
18 and 29 (margin of error ±10 percentage points), 334
between the ages of 30 and 40 (±6), and 269 50 and older
(±7).
