BY TED BRIDIS
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON -- The government's latest look at personal computer ownership and use shows huge gains in Americans using e-mail and owning computers at home, but it also reveals a widening "digital divide" between whites and minorities.
The Commerce Department report, released Tuesday, shows that whites are more than twice as likely to own a home computer as blacks or Hispanics, and a racial disparity in PC ownership exists even among families earning more than $75,000.
The report, called "Falling through the Net II," said about 76 percent of white families with salaries above $75,000 own home computers, compared with 64 percent of black families at the same income level.
Across all incomes, about 41 percent of white families own PCs but only about 19 percent of black and Hispanic families do.
"Now is the time to bridge the digital divide, prevent those who can benefit the most from falling through the net," said Vice President Al Gore, who used the report's findings to promote his plan to provide Internet access to schools and libraries.
The survey of 48,000 families, conducted by the Census Bureau in late 1997, called minorities, poor people, senior citizens and those living in rural areas society's "least connected." Among the study's findings:
People living in rural areas and the inner city, especially minorities, are slightly less likely to own computers and spend time online than those in urban areas.
About 21 percent of seniors own PCs, and about 9 percent use the Internet at home. Nearly half the people 35-44 years old are connected. "There was a period when the fear of technology was a major inhibiting factor, but more and more, seniors are demonstrating that's not the case anymore," said Andrea Wooten, president of Green Thumb Inc., a group that trains seniors. "The thing motivating seniors is they want to communicate with their kids and their grandkids." College graduates are nearly 10 times more likely to own a computer than those without any high school education; about 10 percent of high school graduates use the Internet, but 38 percent with a college degree use it.
