Next month, the World Wide Web turns 25 years old. (Yes, you are getting older). First proposed by Tim Berners-Lee in 1989, the Web drastically increased the number of people on the Internet.
Now, the Pew Research Center is taking a look back with its report “The Web at 25.” It’s filled with interesting tidbits about how Americans viewed technology in the past — in 1995, 42 percent of them had never heard of the Internet — and how they view it now. Here is a look at the country’s relationship with the Internet today.
90 percent: Americans who think that the Internet has been a good thing for them personally.
$75,000: Income level were Internet usage almost becomes ubiquitous. A full 99 percent of Americans who report this much household income are on the Web.
28 percent: Landline telephone owners who would find it “very hard” to give up their phones. That is a big drop from 2006, when 48 percent of landline owners struggled with the idea of giving up their phones.
11 percent: The gap between those who would find it “very hard” to give up the Internet (46 percent) and television (35 percent).
58 percent: Americans who own a smartphone.
3-to-1: Ratio of Internet users who think that social media strengthens their relationships versus those who think it weakens them.
76 percent: Internet users who say the people they witness or encounter online are “mostly kind” to each other.