Sir Tim Berners-Lee wrote a paper on March 12, 1989 proposing an “information management” system that became the conceptual and architectural structure for the Web. He eventually released the code for his system—for free—to the world on Christmas Day in 1990. It became a milestone in easing the way for ordinary people to access documents and interact over a network of computers called the internet—a system that linked computers and that had been around for years. The Web became especially appealing after Web browsers were perfected in the early 1990s to facilitate graphical displays of pages on those linked computers.
In 1995, only about 14% of the population in the United States were users of the internet. Today internet usage has exploded to include 87% of the population -- a phenomenal growth. And as the chart below shows, there is no group in our society that does not have a majority using the internet in 2014.
But the biggest difference comes in the different age groups. Those 65 and over, a group that grew up before the internet was invented, has significantly less internet usage than the between 18 and 29 years old group (the first group to grow up with the internet being a reality). There is a 40 point difference between these two groups.
This Pew Research Center survey was done between January 9th and 12th of this year of 1,006 nationwide adults, and has a margin of error of about 3.5 points.
prior to the 1989 internet era was a system that was developed by the university of illinois by the name of PLATO. originally it was intended as an educational tool but there were games developed on it and a live chat feature even as early as the mid 70's. it also included (get this) a touch screen. i was in the air force at that time teaching electronics for weather equipment repair and had used it as part of our curriculum. the project reached into europe even at that time.
ReplyDeletesome of what we see today, although very advanced from what it was is really not all that new and reaches back prior to the internet that we all know and can no longer live without.
Those making over $75,000 have more disposable income to buy a computer than those making under $30,000. If you are struggling to put food on the table and a roof over your head, the last thing you are considering purchasing is a computer. This is a no-brainer. Those over 65 may also fall into the under $30,000 category. Do they pay for meds or a computer? I am 67 and remember when, in 1991, I had to draw up an economic plan to justify the purchase of one computer for my Art Department at a $10M industry where I was working. It took me 6 months to talk them out of continuing the antiquated use of paste-up and drag them kicking and screaming into the future of computer graphics. It was a rather large purchase but their $10,000 investment saved them $50,000 that first year. After that they outfitted everyone in the company with computers. Yes, even the sales staff. So some of us "older" people were ahead of the curve before our employers were. Now that we are retired and on SS and a reduced income, we can't afford to go out and purchase the latest and greatest computers every other year. If the chart referring to the "over 65" group would change that to "over 75" it might be more accurate because it was the group who are just now "over 65" who invented the internet and computing. BTW, I have made my living in computer graphics since 1987.
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