Email...We Don't Need Stinkin' Email!

Or the internet for that matter. According to a recent telephone survey conducted by Parks Associates and reported in PC World Magazine one fifth, 21%, of the US population has never used email. Some 20 million households in the US do not have internet access, and 1 in 3 heads of household have never used a computer to create a document.
To quote Robin from the old Batman TV show, "holy digital divide Batman!" As one might expect age and education play a role in these data. Half of the "no email" respondents were over 65 and 56% never got beyond high school.

While these numbers might seem surprising to those of us on-line consider in 2006 that 29% or 31 million households were without the internet claiming low perceived value. So in just 2 short years the divide has narrowed by 11 million households. The survey also found that over the next 12 months an additional 1.4 million households plan to bring the internet into their homes.

It's safe to assume there will always be some without connectivity of some sort--or interest; but it's also safe to assume that "the internet" in whatever form it takes in the future will be ubiquitous in the lives of most Americans.