Digital Divide On the Home Front

An interesting new survey by the Pew Internet and American Life Project points out a that there is a digital divide of massive proportions on the home front and it shows little chance of changing in the near future. The new study shows the majority of Americans are still on dial-up Internet access and keeping the slow connection by choice. In fact a whopping 62 percent of dial-up users reported no interest in switching over to broadband. About a third cited price as the deciding factor, but 19 percent indicated they wouldn't make the change regardless of rates or anything else. Just over a quarter of Americans are not even getting online at all -- and the vast majority of these people also say they're simply not interested, find it too difficult or expensive, or just see it as a waste of time. Most of these users are older -- a median age of 61 -- and many are also lower-income families. In fact, the Pew study indicates non-Internet users are more than twice as likely to live in low-income homes, compared to those who are net-savvy.

You have to wonder how the over 25% of Americans who are not online at all are getting along. We have a couple of older members of our family who are in that boat and they complain about calling for information and, if they should get a human being on the other end of the phone, being told that the information is only available online. What do your kids think of this? Hard to build compassion for a generation so out of touch with their own online- focused world. The digital divide has enormous connotations for the future it seems on many levels.

The Service Gap

"You're standing at a checkout counter, ready to pay, and the twentysomething behind the register is talking on her cell phone. So you wait, and wait, and wait, and when the clerk finally finishes her conversation, she offers not an apology, but a grimace that suggests you've interrupted. Sound familiar? It has a name: the Service Gap." So starts an article on new business jargon to describe some of the frustration that many baby boomers felt during the holiday shopping season that just passed. The same article points out that the kids today that are behind the store counters have a very different shopping background. Their's is more impersonal, transactions are completed on the phone or on the Internet, and even their social interactions are conducted via text message, instant message or by postings on sites like Facebook and MySpace - which means their people skills may be limited. Have you had any similar experiences? Is there a Service Gap? Does something need to be done about it?