Slashdot Mirror
Only One Quarter of the Planet To Be Online By 2012
Stony Stevenson writes "Researchers are predicting that one quarter of the world's population will be connected to the internet within the next four years. According to the report by Jupiter Research, the total number of people online will climb to 1.8 billion by 2012, encompassing roughly 25 percent of the planet. The company sees the highest growth rates in areas such as China, Russia, India and Brazil. Overall, the number of users online is predicted to grow by 44 percent in the time period between 2007 and 2012." Is it just me or does that seem incredibly small?
It does seem small, but you have to consider that most of the world doesn't live up to 'industrialized' and 'information age' standards of living. Its actually a pretty incredible number.
Seriously, it's just you.
It breaks my pluginses, my precious!
... or do you not realize how poor most of the planet is?
Look at the tomato! Isn't it sad? He can't dance! Poor tomato!
THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!
About one quarter of the world doesn't have electricity. (1.6 B according to IEA, 2 B according to Greenpeace).
If you haven't been down-modded lately, you aren't trying.
Sacred cows make the best hamburger.
Isn't that all of us? I thought the Earth was covered by 75% water? iT
The number of people online divided by the world's population is a not fair comparison. Think of all the infants and toddlers that aren't online because they are too young, or all the people who are too disabled to use the Internet. Even if you theoretically included the people who didn't have electricity or money to get onto the 'net in the calculation, it still doesn't make sense to include those who are otherwise not physically able to use a computer if they had one. I would like to see the percentage of people on the 'net relative to the number of people who CAN be on the yet, as in physically able.
I thank the overall literacy rate must be related to this - even abundant access to a computer won't mean much if you can't read. According to the OLPC website, "Most of the nearly twoâ"billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade." Also, let's not forget that much of the world does not have access to electricity on a regular basis. Also from the OLPC website: "...XO can be recharged by human power. This is a critical advance for the half-billion children who have no access to electricity."
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... in reality, it's incredibly large!
Having lived in what is effectively a third world country, South African, for about 15 years, one thing is painfully obvious when compared with life in a first world country. The vast majority of people have little to no access to electricity, let alone the internet!
It's very hard to understand this unless you witness it first hand - it's all to easy to think "but surely everyone needs to be on the internet?"
The reality is for most of humanity, the struggle to put food on the plate and shelter themselves is the main driving force in their daily lives.
I'm therefore suprised at how many people are online, not how few - completely the opposite reaction to the parent.
A slashdotting - you get the stick first and then the carrot !
Firstly you need to think of how many third world countries there are and also developed nations where there is a vast agricultural society where the internet is just an irrelevant "fancy" for city dwellers to keep themselves entertained. You and I might find the internet a necessary tool for our trades and daily lives but going back 20 or 30 years, could you see yourself becoming so dependent on such a device as a people? Instant information and communication have become woven into the very fabric of who we are but there are many more people out there that simply have no use for it. It steals idle time like heroin steals life. You only need to walk away from it for a few days, or hours in some cases, to feel its draw. Many that have fell into its grasp cannot free themselves, their very livelihood depends on it. For others, the majority it seems, it is simply a useless tool or senseless toy to occupy the minds of those who have access to it. To them it's as useful as a canoe is to a desert goat herder.
It is just you. There are literally billions of people who have not heard of WoW, a MacBook, or your parents' basement. There IS a whole world out there, you know, in that room outside the server room, where the sky is sometimes blue and sometimes black with little white led lights, where the HVAC is on the blink half the time. You know that big room?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I have yet to see an internet cafe here in India. Two types of people exist.. the ones with access to the internet because they work in software and make money.. and the day laborers who don't know what a computer is.
There is no middle ground. You will not see a day laborer hitting up a cafe to check his email. Just no.
I'm now in Poland: http://williamwnek
that in 2008 only 50% of the planet will have a telephone.
http://www.nationmaster.com/graph/med_tel_sub-media-telephone-subscribers
Most people in industrialized nations has access to TV today
There, fixed it for you.