Search and email may be the two most popular online activities, but not everyone is checking messages and Googling every question that pops into their heads.
In fact, according to a new Pew Internet & American Life Project study, 8 percent of the Internet population does not use email or search online.
“E-mail and search form the core of online communication and online information gathering, respectively,” the report said. “And they have done so for nearly a decade, even as new platforms, broadband and mobile devices continue to reshape the way Americans use the Internet and Web."
The study didn’t elaborate on what the 8 percent of users not accessing email and search sites are up to.
Pew’s search and email findings came from a survey of more than 2,250 adults ages 18 and over, with a margin of error for the sample of 2 percent.
Not surprisingly, search and email use has jumped up in the past decade. In 2002, about 8 in 10 online adults were using search engines and 9 in 10 online adults were emailing.
Now, about 92 percent of users engage in both of these activities, with 6 in 10 online adults doing so each day. In 2002, only 49 percent used email each day and 29 percent used a search engine daily.
The youngest, most-educated and more financially well-off Internet users are more likely to use both search and email compared with other adults.
Although email use is comparable across white, African-American and Hispanic online adults, email use on any given day is not. White online adults (63 percent) are significantly more likely than both African-American (48 percent) and Hispanic (53 percent) online adults to be email users on a typical day.
Reach TechNewsDaily senior writer Samantha Murphy at smurphy@techmedianetwork.com. Follow her on Twitter @ SamMurphy_TMN.