Two-thirds of American adults go online

... and one-third do not, says a press release from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. 68%, or about 137 million people, use the Internet, up from 63% a year ago.

Age plays a significant factor. Pew reports "26% of Americans age 65 and older go online, compared with 67% of those age 50-64, 80% of those age 30-49, and 84% of those age 18-29." And while 53% of users now have broadband Internet access at home (up from 21% in 2002), seniors and people with lower household incomes or less education are less likely to have broadband.

Susannah Fox, associate director of the Pew Internet Project, characterizes it this way: "There are three degrees of internet access – cold, tepid, and hot." There are the people who are not online at all, the people with dial-up who use the Internet intermittently, and the "broadband elite" who work online everyday and are "devoted to their online pursuits."