New Pew Report: African Americans Most Active Users of Mobile Web
Pew Internet & American Life Project has released a new report on users of wireless Internet. Based on the findings of an April 2009 daily tracking survey, the results of the report were gleaned from data from telephone interviews conducted by Princeton Survey Research International between March 26 to April 19, 2009, among a sample of 2,253 adults, 18 and older.
The survey revealed:
- 56% of adult Americans have accessed the internet by wireless means, such as using a laptop, mobile device, game console, or MP3 player.
- The most prevalent way people get online using a wireless network is with a laptop computer; 39% of adults have done this.
- One-third of Americans (32%) have used a cell phone or Smartphone to access the internet for emailing, instant-messaging, or information-seeking. This level of mobile internet is up by one-third since December 2007, when 24% of Americans had ever used the internet on a mobile device. On the typical day, nearly one-fifth (19%) of Americans use the internet on a mobile device, up substantially from the 11% level recorded in December 2007. That’s a growth of 73% in the 16 month interval between surveys.
And important to BlackWeb20.com readers:
African Americans are the most active users of the mobile internet – and their use of it is also growing the fastest. This means the digital divide between African Americans and white Americans diminishes when mobile use is taken into account.
- 48% of Africans Americans have at one time used their mobile device to access the internet for information, emailing, or instant-messaging, half again the national average of 32%.
- 29% of African Americans use the internet on their handheld on an average day, also about half again the national average of 19%.
- Compared with 2007, when 12% of African Americans used the internet on their mobile on the average day, use of the mobile internet is up by 141%.
The high level of activity among African Americans on mobile devices helps offset lower levels of access tools that have been traditional onramps to the internet, namely desktop computers, laptops, and home broadband connections.
- By a 59% to 45% margin, white Americans are more likely to go online using a computer on a typical day than African Americans.
- When mobile devices are included in the mix, the gap is cut in half; 61% of whites go online on the average day when mobile access is included while 54% of African Americans do.
- Looking across a range of digital activities – some done online typically using a computer and others being non-voice data activities on a mobile device – African American and white Americans, on average, do the same number of activities.
Access the rest of the report HERE.
Category: Trends, web 2.0 | Tags: African American mobile web users, African Americans, Pew Internet & American Life Project, Princeton Survey Research International
About the Author Managing Editor. Blogger. Consultant. Nerd who likes it behind the scenes.
See all posts by Robin Caldwell.
I've been actively using the internet (reading, downloading music, research, etc…) since 1998 when I had AOL Dial Up. Very few people in my neighborhood (I'm from Detroit), even had a computer, let alone their own computer AND the internet. I was using DOS command and simple stuff like that.
From then until now, most of the people I know have the internet, but a lot of younger black adults use the internet from their phones. I don't use my phone for the internet, as I find it to be highly annoying. Personally, I use my phone to call and text people, that's about it. I have digital cameras and desktop/laptop computers for the other stuff. I think the reason some of the black blogs that are mobile accessible are doing great because of all the added traffic. But how do you get ad dollars from a mobile site?
I've been actively using the internet (reading, downloading music, research, etc…) since 1998 when I had AOL Dial Up. Very few people in my neighborhood (I'm from Detroit), even had a computer, let alone their own computer AND the internet. I was using DOS command and simple stuff like that.
From then until now, most of the people I know have the internet, but a lot of younger black adults use the internet from their phones. I don't use my phone for the internet, as I find it to be highly annoying. Personally, I use my phone to call and text people, that's about it. I have digital cameras and desktop/laptop computers for the other stuff. I think the reason some of the black blogs that are mobile accessible are doing great because of all the added traffic. But how do you get ad dollars from a mobile site?
First: Getting more African-Americans to adopt broadband ownership is only one digital divide (actually the first digital divide). What ‘DNLee’ pointed out (“quality and depth of use of internet use and comprehension is in question”) is what digital divide experts refer to as ‘Second-Level Digital Divides.’ To ‘DNLee’s’ point, the author of the research points out that “African-Americans and white Americans, on average, do the same number of activities” once they get online. The question on the table is how effective and efficient are the majority of African-Americans when conducting a number of activities online. As I commented about in the previous Pew report, research done by Northwestern University professor Eszter Hargittai on peoples internet usage showed that African-Americans lack the following skills:
? We do fewer things online
? Exhibit lower levels of know-how
To be clear, this is not an indictment against all African-Americans who are online. Out of the 1,160 University of Illinois (UIC) that were researched, only 11% were African-Americans. Be that as it may, this is still another digital divide that impacts our community, so we have to do more than just make sure our people have access to internet.
Now to the Pew research: While I'm happy with what the research shows we still don't know several things. For example, what was the age breakdown of the African-Americans that were surveyed that stated they access the Internet via their mobilephone? Was it mostly African-Americans from generation X and Y (based on their age)? This is important because typically the African-American age group that we struggle to get to embrace the Internet and technology are low income baby boomers. So what is the solution? First, we've known since the broadband report put out by Pew that there are reasons why (e.g. cost, don't see the benefit) African-Americans (specifically in urban areas) shy away from using broadband. And from this new report we can perhaps add to the list that maybe a good portion of the African-American community (especially teens and young adults) are more comfortable or prefer to access the internet via their mobile phone.
So instead of attempting to implement broadband throughout urban communities, why not make sure adequate broadband is setup in our libraries and community centers and blanket the community with wi-fi instead? And should I even dare to say, make the wi-fi free! Now I know this suggestion is a bit radical, but maybe that is what it will take because apparently what’s being done now is not producing the results we’re looking for as a community. I mean only a 3% increase in the last year won’t cut it when you have other community’s broadband ownership increasing almost by double-digits. Now hypothetically let’s say this suggestion is possible. We wouldn’t know for sure whether it’s the right idea or if it will work without first knowing why the African-Americans surveyed prefer mobile internet access over broadband. The answer to this question of course wasn’t explored in the Pew research.
If we choose to do nothing, we can just accept the fact that if you compare the broadband usage of whites to the mobile phone Internet usage of blacks, you basically have solved that aspect of the digital divide. Any thoughts?
Mikey Digital (Computer Scientist & Digital Divide Expert)
Black Digerati
Founder/Publisher
http://www.blackdigerati.org
This may be true and I would co-sign this finding with my anecdotal observations of people but there is a BUT…the quality and depth of use of internet use and comprehension of AA is still in question. an obvious area of concern for bridging the digital divide is the sophistication or savviness factor of AA (and perhaps latinos and native americans, I don't personally know) compared to to white and Asian americans. This was a topic that was only slight scratched at the Blogging While Brown 2 conference.
For the most part, the popularitity of blogs is built upon blog writers reading other blogs. I think our (the BwB community and perhaps all advocate-centered online communities) is reach beyond 'the choir'. I am specifically interested in reaching more non-bloggers to read my blog as a source of information. This mobile-only internet use is a signal to me that getting folks to read and comment on content-based blogs is still a challenge.
Mobile tech is great but doesnOne of the things that seemed to be
Hi Navarrow, thank you for commenting. The sigh of relief I breathed in regard to this report is the acknowledgment that we are a unique user group, which until recently fell on deaf ears. Otherwise, I wholeheartedly agree with you. So what is the solution?
yes, this is great but overall adoption rates for broadband for African Americans below 50% and below Hispanics. And the growth rate for AA has been slower than average for the past 3 years.