20% of U.S. Population Has Never Used Email 279
Ezratrumpet writes "A recent PC World article notes that 20 percent of the U.S. population has never sent an email. Does this number over- or underestimate the actual number of people who know nothing of email? What are the implications of this statistic to our society? Or are these people just Luddites who mourned the demise of the telegraph and have also never used a telephone?"
Households, not population (Score:5, Informative)
Shocked?! (Score:5, Informative)
215,935,529 Internet users as of Dec/07, 71.7% of the population, according to Nielsen//NetRatings
Latest Population Estimate
301,139,947 population for 2007, according to the Census Bureau.
nevertheless they are indirectly affected ... (Score:2, Informative)
On the other side, most people that doesn't know how to use e-mail ask techies they know for help.
I have already forgotten how many mails I have sent for my mom and aunts.
Re:So? (Score:1, Informative)
By learning the reasons email doesn't meet the communication needs of a significant portion of the population, you can either expand the capabilities of email, or design new systems to address those gaps.
The parent's point is that all forms of communication, let alone all technologies, are not appropriate for all people. It's possible that some of the 20% of non-email users don't use email out of fear, ignorance or inability, but many of them are aware of the technology and simply don't see the need to use it.
Re:So? (Score:3, Informative)
Abnormal doesn't mean wrong, stupid, or anything else bad. It just means you're not doing the normal thing that the majority of people do.
And the illiteracy rate is... (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Maybe they did a cost/benefit analysis? (Score:3, Informative)
The GP could have phrased things better but he is essentially correct. In the developing world and the "wealthy" but space constrained world people generally do not own computers, they go to the local cafes which are plentiful and inexpensive. Cafes in the US are expensive because they serve a different demographic. Perhaps too many teenagers who couldn't talk their dads out of buying a celeron with shared memory embedded graphics rather than a $3,000 gaming rig, and not enough who want basic information, email, etc. US demographics also play a role, with cafes in the US being more plentiful in wealthier areas. They neighborhood cafe charges what the neighborhood can afford. Willingness to pay, not expenses plus a small percentage, generally dictates pricing.
Re:Households, not population (Score:3, Informative)
See The Spanish Prisoner [wikipedia.org]. This scam is at least 100 years old.
Twenty years ago our company used to get letters, (snail mail) from Nigeria, with exactly the sme pitches as they use now in email. A few years later they came by fax.
The medium is new, the scams are not. It's true that we now get them much more frequently than when it was something we passed around in the office and laughed at their audacity.
Re:So? (Score:2, Informative)
Re:So? (Score:3, Informative)
How much did it cost me to send this message? (like email). Hell of a lot LESS than a postage stamp and a postage stamp tends to reflect amount of cost to *deliver* the said letter.
If the costs were similar, there would be no SPAM at all because even if the said costs were shared, it would cost you 5c or 10c to just send a single message.
If you just want to be anal about some stupid question like this and waste few millions on "research" if the plastic is from a dinosaur's ass in Indonesia or algae bloom during Pangaea's time, then that's your business.
Re:Households, not population (Score:3, Informative)
As much as I would like to agree with you, I simply can not. It's stands to reason that those made aware of the dangers (either by education, experience or cynicism ) would take safeguards to prevent theft via email scams; however, I personally know of someone who has been made aware of these scams (Nigerian 411 and others) on a continuing basis and STILL gets taken in by them year after year. The most recent quandary almost resulted in the loss of their life's savings - and this was a near miss - the check they were given *was* deposited. I found out through a family member that has very little contact with the person in question.
You may be thinking that this person is a real idiot (and in many cases it would be hard argue to the contrary); but, this person has several advanced engineering degrees. What could it be? Greed is all I can think of.
Greed is a powerful motivator and I believe greed has overridden this person's natural cautious sense.
Mind you now, this "victim" (self imposed?) is a Retired US Marine and still thinks that there is a way to combat these scams directly. So, he takes the frontal assault method and even replies to scams telling them to "Buzz Off" - which, as we all know, only fuels the fire. (For those who don't know, never reply to spam as all that does is inform the spammer that they have a 'live' email address. Those are worth more and spammers pay big for them. Dont do it. Ignore it. Let the spammers work harder, will ya.)
So, it's obvious the person knows about the scams and what to look for (to a degree) because they are trying to "fight it." So, why does he get taken in?
As with this most recent scam, he was taken in because someone paid him ~$9000.00 in the form of a check from a bank in NYC. So he thought it was real. I just wish they could have kept the 9 grand. In this run, there were 4500 of these checks issued all across the USA. I think they were all found out, though, and no one got scammed...this time.
If you think you are being taken in by a scam or the victim of a scam CONTACT THE FBI. Local police can't do a thing to protect you from identity theft or fraud. The FBI can...again, only to a certain degree.
http://www.ic3.gov/ [ic3.gov]
Re:Seems about right (Score:3, Informative)
"And a good percentage of that cant afford Internet service in the first place."
Just from my personal experiences here, but Even At a Group home, (if you've ever been to a group home, people there are getting over serious mental issues, or recovering from serious addictions) there was a mac set up so people could e-mail, the younger patients used e-mail the older ones tended not to, I'm actually kind of surprised that they could even get to '80%' with all the old foggies out there, who are due to mental deterioration living in a different time from the rest of us.
BTW every public library i have been to, even one in a city the size of 1000, had in it Internet terminals (as of 2008) the computers were donated, of course, but they still had 4 Internet terminals in a library that literally had only 5 book shelves total!
even a 'drop in center' for people with mental illness now has 'public Internet' terminals, which were donated, the facility in question had Internet because the county has offices for their CSP program there as well...
the Internet is free just about everywhere you go these days, even if you can't afford it at home, and don't have a car, taking a bike ride to the nearest free computer terminal is probably good for your health even walking is possible in some places for some people.