LATINOS ON THE INTERNET: MEETING IN THE MIDDLE
(Posted 2009-12-22 15:31:27 by Ray Lopez)
The Pew Hispanic Center recently released a report [
http://pewhispanic.org/files/reports/119.pdf ] describing Internet usage
amongst Latinos in the US.
Overall, the report was very encouraging. From 2006 to 2008, the
percentage of adult Latinos who used the Internet grew by 10 percentage
points from 54 to 64 percent. The percentage of adult whites who used the
internet also grew during this same time period, from 72 to 76 percent.
Interestingly, the percentage of blacks using the Internet during this time
only grew by two percentage points, from 61 to 63 percent. The authors of
this study suggest that these numbers may be underestimated, because of the
fact that cell-phone-only homes have grown dramatically, particularly
amongst Latinos and blacks, and this survey was conducted across telephone
land-lines.
While this overall view is good news, it shows that we still have a long
way to to before we achieve true equality in access to Internet resources,
and the details of the Pew study bear this out. Latinos born in the US
were just as likely as whites to use the internet in 2008, 77 percent to 76
percent, respectively. However, only 52 percent of foreign-born Latinos
used the Internet in 2008 (up from 40 percent in 2006). Even more
interesting is the fact that this difference persisted when controlling for
education levels, household income, and English proficiency. Thus, while
young Latinos and US-born Latinos are using the Internet, there is still
much to be done to be able to reach foreign-born Latinos.
Another area of concern is access to the Internet by poor Latinos and those
with less education. Only 56 percent of Latinos earning less than $30K/yr
in household income used the Internet in 2008, up from a meager 39 percent
in 2006. By comparison, eighty-eight percent of Latinos earning more than
$50k/yr used the Internet in 2008, a number that did not change from 2006.
These numbers compare favorably to those of whites and blacks, suggesting
that the effects of poverty and lower educational attainment on Internet
usage cut across race.
The Pew report also looked at the use of _broadband_ internet connections
by Latinos, blacks, and whites. It is important to look at broadband
adoption as a population variable because many of today's web-based
applications (e.g. online banking, government services) are
bandwidth-intensive and unable to run well on slower, dialup Internet
connections. As it turns out, the broadband adoption numbers are similar
to those for overall Internet usage. Latinos have gone from 63 percent
broadband usage in 2006, up to 76 percent in 2008. These numbers are
similar to those for whites and blacks, though Latinos trail slightly
behind both groups. As with overall Internet usage, the poor,
under-educated, and foreign-born Latinos trailed all other groups in terms
of broadband usage.
Overall, there was good news in the Pew report, but there are also a lot of
challenges which lay ahead. These challenges are important, because
Latinos are the fastest-growing minority population in the US, and we
cannot afford to have such a large percentage of our population. But what
to do?
From the results of the Pew report, it is clear that foreign-born Latinos,
poor Latinos, and under-educated Latinos are the primary groups that should
be targeted in any plan to promote Internet usage. There is likely much
overlap between these three groups, but there is also an opportunity to
craft interventions aimed specifically at getting more members of each of
these 3 groups to use the Internet, and to connect via broadband
connections from home. Granted, dealing with these issues entails dealing
with a complex universe of interrelated issues, from racism to immigration
reform to unemployment. But there are likely many interventions and policy
actions which may help alleviate some of the most obvious differences
between Latinos and whites.
In spite of high levels of education and income, many foreign-born Latinos
are not using the Internet. This may be due to a lack of awareness of the
utility and value of Internet resources. Awareness may be positively
influenced by advertising aimed at getting more foreign-born Latinos
interested in using the Internet, as well as education. As more and more
children of foreign-born Latinos attend colleges and universities, it would
be incumbent on organizations such as the Hispanic Association of Colleges
and Universities (HACU) to work with federal and state lawmakers to make
sure that these schools can provide the resources necessary to enable these
students to learn about the resources available on the Internet, and
understand the benefits of broadband access. Similarly, under-educated
Latinos are in desperate need of these types of resources, particularly at
the K-12 levels.
Poor Latinos are likely beset with the problem of limited access to the
Internet in areas where they live, and especially limited access to
broadband. The federal government has plans in place to extend broadband
access to underserved areas but such plans are dependent upon accurate maps
of broadband usage. The creation of these maps has been a political and
technical challenge. From the political side, there are many who are
opposed to the idea of broadband mapping, claiming it to be a waste of time
and resources. Technically, broadband maps require the cooperation of
numerous private and public sector entities, and getting all of these
entities to agree on common terminology and common standards is
problematic.
In sum, Latinos have greater access to the Internet and to broadband than
they ever have. If they can just work on building up awareness and
education regarding Internet resources, perhaps policy makers can meet them
in the middle with better and better plans to extend the technical
infrastructure to those who are newly aware of the vast world of
cyberspace.
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