According to a recent survey, 1 in 5 Americans have never sent an e-mail and 20 million households are without Internet access. This is not a surprising statistic to me. It was only about 2 years ago that the stat on businesses that had an Internet presence was estimated at less than 1 in 10. That may seem staggering but think about how many small businesses there are that have been operating just fine prior to the explosion of the Internet.
Now this does not mean that all of these users are luddites or simply too poor to afford a computer and/or Internet access. Age is a large factor. I can think of my Mom who is in her 60s and who I’ve just convinced to use e-mail and instant messenger! But I would never consider my parents’ household behind the times. They have computers, cell phones, LCD TVs and the usual trappings of modern society.
All things considered, the 20% figure isn’t terrible, but there’s no question with the shift in the economy to the Internet and online business that the outliers need to get moved over. It may just take some time though as you can only ‘persuade’ so many people.