Exploring the digital divide: Internet connectedness and age

The existence of a digital divide between old and young Americans has been well documented. It is usually defined as access or lack of access to the Internet. This study adds context to the understanding of the digital divide by demonstrating differences in Internet connectedness,a multidimensional con-cept that includes consideration of the scope and intensity of the relationship that people develop with the Internet. Age is shown to be significantly associ-ated not just with access,but with a tendency to pursue a more narrow range of personal goals online and with a pattern of connecting to the Internet from a smaller range of places. Nonetheless, older respondents evaluate the Internet to be as central to their lives as younger people do. Some support is offered for the idea that the digital divide is not merely a generational effect. The potential for the Internet to play a larger role in the lives of older Ameri-cans than it presently does has recently received attention from researchers. Some research has focused on the potential for receiving social support online (White et al., 1999; Wright, 2000), some on the possibility of computer train-ing to open Internet resources to senior citizens (Cody, Dunn, Hoppin, & Wendt, 1999; White et al., 1999), and some on the reasons why a digital divide has emerged between younger and older Americans (Lenhart, Rainie, Fox, Horrigan, & Spooner, 2000; National Telecommunications and Information Administration [NTIA], 2000). Underlying much of this research is a pre-sumption that seniors who do not gain Internet access are deprived of a resource for enhancing their lives, a resource to which others (e.g., othe