Research Suggest 15% Of Americans Don't Go Online

There is a certain number of American adults that stays offline regardless of how available to the masses it is.

According to a Pew research, that number is 15 per cent, and has stayed that way since 2012. There are numerous reasons to why people decide to stay offline. A third of those surveyed who aren’t online (34 per cent) said they don’t think the Internet is relevant to their lives, or that they’re simply not interested in what the Web has to offer (cat videos and memes? what’s there not to be interested in?).

Another 32 per cent of people who don’t use the Internet said the technology required to access the Internet is just too tough to get the hang of, and 8 per cent said they were “too old to learn.”

But there is also a group of adults which is particularly interesting. Out of those 15 per cent that are offline, a fifth (19 per cent) cited the expense of Internet service or owning a computer as their reason for staying offline.

According to Pew, a person’s education is closely linked to its online presence. One-third of American adults who have less than a high school education are also never online.

Place of living is also important – those living in rural areas are twice nearly twice as likely as city dwellers and suburbanites to say that they never go online.

This article was originally published at Live Science, and that is where you can find more details about the research.