Only 1/3 of Spanish-Only Speakers Go Online

By Deborah Bulkeley Deseret Morning News

Only about one in three Latino adults who speak only Spanish or who have not completed high school go online, according to a new report by the Pew Hispanic Center and the Pew Internet Center.

“If someone is not a strong reader, then the Internet, which is still very much a text-based medium, may not be a very attractive resource,” said Susannah Fox, co-author of the report.

There is also the issue of access among a mobile population of recent immigrants who may not live in one place long enough to contract with an Internet company or have a land line, she said.

Only 56 percent of Latinos go online, according to the report, based on nationwide telephone surveys of 6,016 Latino adults, age 18 and older, conducted in Spanish and English last June through October.

However, among Latinos who are English-dominant or bilingual, 76 percent to 78 percent use the Internet. That usage rate is higher than for non-Hispanic whites, 71 percent of whom use the Internet.

Fox said those statistics likely relate to the youth of the Hispanic population. Hispanics who are strong English speakers are “more likely to be younger and therefore more likely to be online.”

Fox said that in a nation where information is increasingly digitized, the groups with the least amount of access are those over age 70, those without a high school diploma and Latino immigrants.

“Yes, there are people who do not use the Internet who do have information sources,” she said. “More and more, we’re seeing government services transacted online, and often the best information sources are only available online.”

While the report found that 26 percent of Latino adults have neither a cell phone nor an Internet connection, it did find that some Latinos who do not use the Internet are connected to the communication web via cell phone. Nearly 60 percent of Latino adults have a cell phone, and half of Latino cell-phone users send and receive text messages.

Rather than accessing information through the Internet, Latino immigrants tend to have social networks built upon large extended families, said Jorge Reina Schement, distinguished professor of communication at Pennsylvania State University.

“The numbers show up as lower access. It isn’t completely that much lower,” he said. “Access comes in different forms.”

The full report is available online at www.pewhispanic.org.

E-mail: dbulkeley@desnews.com

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