I agree that it is a big disadvantage to be without the Internet. I honestly
don't know what I would do without it at this point after having access to
it for so long. I do believe that there has to be some public access to it
in lower income areas such as libraries and schools, however.
Jamie M. Cripe jamiecripe@xxxxxxxxxxx
From: Julie Ruark <jcruark@xxxxxxxxx> Reply-To: citw150@xxxxxxxxxxxxx To: citw150@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [citw150] CITW 150 L3 Q5 Falling through the Net Date: Tue, 4 Oct 2005 18:58:33 -0700 (PDT)
CITW 150 L3 Q5
I?ve been noticing how many moms in my neighborhood don?t have internet access at home. This surprises me because I?ve assumed that by now most people would have a computer and most people would use the internet.
So I read with interest the article ?Falling Through the Net: Toward Digital Inclusion? which you can find at; http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fttn00/contents00.html.
The author says that many Americans are still connecting at far lower rates than others, creating a digital divide. This is especially true for those who have lower incomes and for those who have less education. Some of the statistics include 37.7% of central city households have Internet access, and for those in the $15,000-24,999 income category, only 21.3% of households have Internet access. (August 2000). Even though computers are coming down in cost, they are still a big expense. Another challenge I think is that you need to replace computers fairly frequently because they get out of date so quickly. Not having Internet access in our world today seems like a big disadvantage.
-Julie Ruark
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