R.I.P “Digital divide” – Latinos are all over Internet

“600 Words by Esther J. Cepeda”

This rant is dedicated to all the people out there who are innocently laboring under the misperception that the vast majority of Hispanics in the United States are living in such crushing poverty that they are not able to access information on the Internet. 

These people – distinguished academics, misguided do-gooders, and everyday Joes alike– go around with a picture in their mind of what a Hispanic person is and it involves challenges in language, lack of education, and low access to resources. Sadly, this is true in many cases. However, it is not when it comes to access to the internet.

And to the concerned parties, Nice Esther says: stop fretting about our electronic habits, we’re OK. To others who aren’t as benevolent toward the U.S.’s exploding Latino community and prefer to think of us all as illiterate immigrants, Mean Esther says: Take your “digital divide” and shove it up your assumptions.

Let me ply you with statistics:

• In a recent report called The Power of the Hispanic Consumer On-line, Scarborough Research says that the majority (54%) of Hispanics are now online.

• In fact, Internet access among Hispanics has been increasing at a faster rate than it has among total adults in the U.S - growing 13% (on a relative basis) since 2004 - from 48% in 2004 to its current penetration of 54%.  By contrast, Internet access by all consumers nationally grew 8% during the same time period. (In 2004, 64% of all consumers accessed the Internet, and this increased to 69% in 2008.)

Of course, it’s not abuelita - 18-34 year-old Hispanics are more likely to access the Internet than Hispanics overall, and their rate of Internet access is growing at a faster pace than that of the total Hispanic population. Scarborough says:

“Younger consumers are more likely to download content online. Forty-nine percent of 18-34 year-old adult Internet Users downloaded digital content in the past month, compared to 35% of the total online population. Similarly, it is no surprise that when you examine this younger demographic of Hispanics, the percentage is even higher. 51% of 18-34 year-old Hispanics downloaded digital content during the past 30 days.”

And no, it’s not some tired dial-up connection made from a pre-historic machine in someone’s basement. This same report says, “Hispanics have been taking advantage of the expansion of broadband, and their rate of adoption has mirrored that of the total U.S. population. Currently, 68% of Hispanic Internet Users have a broadband connection in their household. This grew from 13% in 2002 – an increase of more than fivefold.”

In late March, Chicago-based research firm Mintel released results from a survey showing :

• Hispanics are more likely to have profiles on social networking sites than non-Hispanics: 48% of them have one versus 43% of black Americans and 31% of whites.

• Web-surfing Hispanics ages 18-34 visit social networking sites 3.6 times a week on average, versus just 1.3 times per week for over-35s.

• More than a third of all Internet-using Hispanics were age 24 or younger in 2006.

• Other findings from the survey suggest that Hispanics adopt new media technology more quickly than non-Hispanics, spend more time listening to Internet radio and downloading music than non-Hispanics and devote more time weekly to Internet browsing than non-Hispanics.

• The firm says Hispanics spend more time using electronic readers like Amazon's Kindle; playing multiplayer games online (although not single-player); and blogging or commenting online than other groups.

Then just last week, comScore, Inc., a leading Internet-usage research firm released numbers showing that:

• During the past year, the growth of the U.S Hispanic Internet audience outpaced that of the total U.S. online population in terms of number of visitors, time spent and pages consumed, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year.

Alright, say it all together with me now: “There is no ‘Digital Divide’ when it comes to Hispanics.” We know how to boot up, log on, and surf the web – in two languages!

And never mind the computer part of it, Hispanics – much like people who live in poverty and affluence all over the world – access their internet information via that little marvel we call the cellular phone.

Here’s what the Scarborough paper had to say on that topic: “Hispanics are avid cellular phone users. They are more likely than the typical adult to have a cell phone, and they are in the top spending brackets for cellular usage. Hispanics have been at the forefront of using the expanded functionality and technology in cellular devices, such as picture taking, text messaging and downloading ring tones or games. They are also more likely to use cell phones for tasks such as email or utilizing other Internet features.”

"As technology prices drop and the number of bilingual Hispanics in the U.S. grows, we see more Hispanic adults relying on the Internet for day-to-day communication and learning," comments Leylha Ahuile, multicultural expert at Mintel. "U.S. Hispanics who get online via their cell phones provide a great opportunity for marketers who want to reach them in a personal, direct way."

But I’m not here to tell you everything is perfect and, no need to look after the members of Latino communities who don’t yet have access to decent internet or even a computer, thank-you-very-much. Far from it!

There are still many, many great challenges for Latinos of varied socio-economic backgrounds and educational levels who, in all honestly, wouldn’t know a Mac from a PC if the Mac grew teeth and bit them. But that’s where I circle back to the greatest opportunity for growth in communicating with Latinos of all stripes and types: the cell phone.

 What you’ll see, though, is that the cell phone will revolutionize Hispanics’ access to information on the web, making for infinite more connections to vital information that will bring access to social services, higher education, and political empowerment. Sort of like what Novelas Educativas, a Burbank, California-based digital entertainment company has done on YouTube, and in cell-friendly social platforms for the National Council on La Raza and for “Amigos de Obama” during last year’s elections.

"Today kids are all about cell phones just like we were about Air Jordans back in the day – popular and everywhere,” Miguel Orozco, Co-Founder, Novelas Educativas told me when we met a few weeks back. “And now that the digital gap is closing, the real issue we should be concerned about is the information gap.  We should all be asking, 'How do we leverage access into knowledge.'"

Ahhh, yes, how DO we leverage access into knowledge? Well, I don’t have any easy answer for that one, but whatever the answer turns out to be, that lever will probably be translated to at-risk families via a broadband or cellular connection – and most likely into the palms of their hands.

Esther J. Cepeda writes the "600 Words" & "Pregunta del Dia" columns, and is also the Chief Marketing and Communications Officer for the Illinois Student Assistance Commission. Her views and reporting do not necessarily reflect those of ISAC. "600 words" is a registered trademark of EeJayCee, Inc., Copyright 2008. May be reprinted with permission, contact eejaycee@600words.com

Comments

While Latinos comprise 14 percent of the U.S. adult population, just over half (56 percent) go online. Compared to 71 percent of non-Latino whites and 60 percent of non-Latino blacks there is a big drop off when it comes to the Spanish speaking segment of U.S. society.

Latinos comprise 14% of the U.S. adult population and about half of this growing group (56%) goes online. By comparison, 71% of non-Hispanic whites and 60% of non-Hispanic blacks use the internet.

[Victor Manuel Ramos]

I wrote our link wrong, for those who want to see reader comments to your post there: http://www.orlandosentinel.com/HispanoSphere

[Victor Manuel Ramos]

Hola Esther. Thanks for sharing your blog post with Hispanosphere (http://www.orlandosentinel.com/hispanosphere). You already have some comments from readers back on our page. Feel free to engage them and reply if you'd like. Look forward to reading more from you.