Half of American Adults have "Distant or Non-Existent Relationship to IT," Says Report

A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users, was issued today by the Pew Internet Project. It categorizes Americans based on the amount of ICTs they possess, how they use them, and their attitudes about the role of ICTs in their lives.

According to the report, 85 percent of American adults use the Internet or cell phones -- and most use both. Many also have broadband connections, digital cameras and video game systems. Yet the proportion of adults who exploit the connectivity, the capacity for self expression, and the interactivity of modern information technology is a modest 8 percent.

Fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology. Some of this diffidence is driven by people's concerns about information overload; some is related to people's sense that their gadgets have more capacity than users can master; some is connected to people's sense that things like blogging and creating home-brew videos for YouTube is not for them; and some is rooted in people's inability to afford or their unwillingness to buy the gear that would bring them into the digital age.

Ten separate groups emerge in the typology.

• Omnivores (8 percent): They have the most information gadgets and services, which they use voraciously to participate in cyberspace, express themselves online, and do a range of Web 2.0 activities. Most in this group are men in their mid- to late twenties.

• Connectors (7 percent): Between featured-packed cell phones and frequent online use, they connect to people and manage digital content using ICTs -- with high levels of satisfaction about how ICTs let them work with community groups and pursue hobbies.

• Lackluster Veterans (8 percent): They are frequent users of the Internet and less avid about cell phones. They are not thrilled with ICT-enabled connectivity and don't see them as tools for additional productivity. They were among the Internet's early adopters.

• Productivity Enhancers (8 percent): They have strongly positive views about how technology lets them keep up with others, do their jobs, and learn new things. They are frequent and happy ICT users whose main focus is personal and professional communication.

• Mobile Centrics (10 percent): They fully embrace the functionality of their cell phones. They use the Internet, but not often, and like how ICTs connect them to others. 37 percent have high-speed Internet connections at home. The group contains a large share of African Americans.

• Connected But Hassled (10 percent): They have invested in a lot of technology (80 percent have broadband at home), but they find the connectivity intrusive and information something of a burden.

Some 49 percent of all Americans have relatively few technology assets, and they make up the final four groups of the typology. Just 14 percent of members of the first three groups listed below have broadband at home.

• Inexperienced Experimenters (8 percent): They occasionally take advantage of interactivity, but if they had more experience and connectivity, they might do more with ICTs. They are late adopters of the Internet. Few have high-speed connections at home.

• Light But Satisfied (15 percent): They have some technology, but it does not play a central role in their daily lives. They are satisfied with what ICTs do for them. They like how information technology makes them more available to others and helps them learn new things.

• Indifferents (11 percent): Despite having either cell phones or online access, these users use ICTs only intermittently and find connectivity annoying. Few would miss a beat if they had to give these things up.

• Off the Network (15 percent): Those with neither cell phones nor Internet connectivity tend to be older adults. A few of them have computers or digital cameras, but they are content with old media.

The data for the Project's typology of ICT users was gathered through telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates between February 15 and April 6, 2006, among a sample of 4,001 adults, aged 18 and older. The sample has a margin of error of plus or minus two percentage points.