{"id":96496,"date":"2007-05-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2007-05-06T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2007\/05\/06\/sorting-out-information-technology-users\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:14:16","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:14:16","slug":"sorting-out-information-technology-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2007\/05\/06\/sorting-out-information-technology-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Sorting out information technology users"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON, DC \u2013 Fully 85% of American adults use the internet or cell phones \u2013 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%.<\/p>\n\n

Fully half of adults have a more distant or non-existent relationship to modern information technology. Some of this diffidence is driven by people\u2019s concerns about information overload; some is related to people\u2019s sense that their gadgets have more capacity than users can master; some is connected to people\u2019s sense that things like blogging and creating home-brew videos for YouTube is not for them; and some is rooted in people\u2019s inability to afford or their unwillingness to buy the gear that would bring them into the digital age.<\/p>\n\n

These findings come from the Pew Internet Project\u2019s typology of information and communication technology (ICT) users. The typology categorizes Americans based on the amount of ICTs they possess, how they use them, and their attitudes about the role of ICTs are in their lives. Ten separate groups emerge in the typology.<\/p>\n\n

Some of the most interesting cohorts are composed of people who own and operate high-tech tools, but aren\u2019t necessarily wild about the role that gadgets play in their lives.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cTwo groups of technology users have a kind of \u2018tech-gadget\u2019 remorse,\u201d noted John B. Horrigan, Associate Director at the Pew Internet Project and author of the report. \u201cThey have more than a fair share of digital appliances. But they aren\u2019t all that satisfied with the flood of information or pervasive connectivity comes along with these communication goods and services.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

One of the groups \u2013 Lackluster Veterans who make up 8% of the adult population \u2013 contains long-time and frequent online users who don\u2019t like the extra availability that comes with ICTs. The other group \u2013 the Connected but Hassled who comprise 10% of the population \u2013 expresses worries about information overload and doesn\u2019t see ICTs helping their personal productivity.<\/p>\n\n

At the same time, there are other groups that highly prize the things that information technologies do for them, even if they don\u2019t adopt every new Web 2.0 application for creative expression that emerges or upgrade their gadgets every time a new feature comes on the market.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cSome of the earliest adopters of the internet and cell phones still love the things that drew them into this new universe a decade or more ago and they have happily evolved in their use since then,\u201d Horrigan said. \u201cThey live their lives on email; can\u2019t imagine life without a smart phone; download songs to their MP3 players; and howl at online amateur videos. They don\u2019t necessarily have a blog or tag photos on a Flickr account, but they say it would be very hard to give up any of their digital goodies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

He noted, too, that 8% of Americans, labeled Omnivores, constitute the group who are by any measure deeply involved with Web 2.0 activities, such as blogging, sharing creations online, or remixing digital content.<\/p>\n\n

A Full Rundown of the Typology\u2019s 10 Groups Four groups of information technology users occupy the elite end of the spectrum. Collectively, 80% of users in these four groups have high-speed internet at home, roughly twice the national average. They are (with each group\u2019s share in the adult population in parentheses):<\/p>\n\n