By SCOTT JAMES, New York Times
Though it rarely makes headlines these days, the digital divide — the gap between the computer haves and have-nots — remains reality for thousands in the Bay Area, a remarkable situation considering this is home to Google, Apple, Facebook and many other titans of technology. An estimated one in five adults in California do not use the Internet, and 30 percent do not have broadband access at home — about the same as the national average. Those left behind are increasingly isolated and disadvantaged as more of life’s basic information, like vital community news or transit schedules or job listings, has moved online. The divide is most severe in California’s Latino community, where 35 percent of adults do not use the Internet at all, and only 50 percent have broadband access at home. Other groups fare better, according to a 2010 study by the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan research group: whites (90 percent use the Internet, 82 percent have broadband access at home), Asians (87 percent Internet, 77 percent broadband) and blacks (82 percent Internet, 70 percent broadband).
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/17/us/17bcjames.html?_r=1
Share on Facebook