Access and Use Issues

According to U.S. Bureau of the Census data from 1989, 15 percent of all U.S. households reported having a computer, a significant rise from just over eight percent in 1984 (1991, 1). Only 28.1 percent of the adult population, 18 and over, reported using a computer at home, work, school or a combination of the three. This number was up from 18.3 percent in 1984 (1991, 1).

More recent numbers from the Bureau of the Census and other sources suggest computer ownership is rising sharply. Shipments of personal computers in the United States rose 3.4 percent from 1990 to 1991 but jumped 23.2 percent from 1991 to 1992 (Bureau of Census 1994, 771). One study estimated that 27 percent of all U.S. homes had computers in 1992 and projected that penetration to rise to 42 percent by 1996 (PCs Come Home 1994, 11).

The most recent studies put the 1995 number of computers in homes between 27 percent of the population (Schwabach 1995, G1), and 31 percent of the population (Ziegler 1995, B6). Even the most optimistic of these has less than one-third of households owning personal computers.

But simply owning a computer does not automatically connect someone to the vast storehouses of information. A device called a modem (a contraction of "modulate" and "demodulate") converts digital information into a signal that allows computer owners to tap into telephone lines and connect to remote computers where information is stored. Once again, the data on ownership vary. Census data reported that 23 percent of 1989 computer owners also owned modems (1991). Other studies say modem ownership is between ten and 12 percent of total households (Beckett 1994, 6; Taylor 1994, 67; Vittore 1994, 36).

Penetration of personal computers in the home is surpassed by their use in the workplace. Census data from 1989 showed that 36.8 percent of employed adults used computers at work (1991, 1). A 1990 survey reported that 39.3 percent of all work sites had at least one computer and a 1993 estimate predicted nine out of ten white collar workers will sit at a computer workstation in the 1990s (Alber 1993, 9).

What's more, many workplaces and universities now have Internet and other on-line access. A World Wide Web survey, conducted by the Graphics, Visualization, & Usability Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, found that 51 percent of web users reported that their access came from the educational sector and 30 percent said their access came from the commercial sector. Only 28 percent of Web users reported paying for their access personally. "Technical professionals and university students together comprise the majority of the user population, with most users utilizing their WWW browser one to four times a day" (Pitkow and Recker 1994). The uses of this access may not be entirely work-related. "One of the great ironies of networks is that what starts off as a tool for improving productivity can be turned into a major time waster. Hook your site up to the Internet and you can add a whole new dimension to the art of goofing off at work" (McLachlan 1994, 46).

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