Not Everyone Wants To Be Hooked To The Web
An interesting study conducted by Ofcom exposed some surprising results to those who thought that offline people simply stay offline due to the expense of owning a PC and internet bills.
According to the results of the study, 42% of (currently not online) adults in the UK would choose to stay offline willingly even if they had a free broadband connection and were given a free PC, meaning that cost is not the reason why some people are not up to the digital age’s expectations.
On the brighter side, the study also showed that 1 in 5 of the UK adults who do not own a broadband connection do plan to go online in the next six months. The poll results were collected to represent the interest of the 17 million Britons who are not currently online, or in other words the 30% who are offline.
The UK government aims to promote people heading online, which make the Ofcom results a little disappointing as they may have more of a challenge than previously thought in completing their plans.
Yet, according to the study although 42% of the offline population claim they do not have an interest for the internet, out of which many must tend to belong to the older generation, 30% of the population simply reported they were offline because they did not know how to use the internet or it was not financially viable.
Peter Phillips, Ofcom’s market development partner, claimed that broadband is very important to society, and that the results of the poll show that a little creativity will be needed to show those who lack interest just how life changing and beneficial joining the online world could be.
The good news, the Communications Consumer Panel also reported after conducting a study, that 73% of those who do use the internet describe it as an utility that is as essential as electricity or water.
