Pride or Prejustice ?

Okay, I admit there is the odd day when I secretly long for those days: The days before computers, or more precisely before the Internet, were omnipresent and ubiquitous. Life seemed to be so much slower, so much more sheltered and safe. The former is probably true, the latter two more likely the result of the bliss of ignorance. And yes, ignorance can have its benefits sometimes ... :) !

But faced with the choice between Internet and No Internet, my choice is clearly in favour of its existence and I would find it rather hard to imagine life without. I'd rather give the TV a miss. Not a question!

This is why it fascinates me that some people opt out of the Internet.

In developed countries, with Internet penetration typically somewhere between 65% and 90%, depending the country (Internet penetration in the EU), people not using the Internet tend to be a minority. And there are some interesting correlations too regarding age, educational background, gender, income.

One part of the answer, of course, is the digital divide, i.e. the largely involuntary exclusion from the benefits of computing and the Internet as a result of financial, education and other circumstances. The other and more puzzling part of the answer relates to the people that voluntarily and quite consciously opt out.

So, when the recently published Oxford Internet Survey came out, I immediately skipped to the section on non-users and the latest analysis of their reasons for non-use.

The rather surprising answer - and interesting here to see the difference between ex-users and non-users - can be seen in the figure below .... and brings me back to the title of this blog and the question: ah, how exactly do I know I don't like something if I don't know it ???