It’s often said, with a great deal of arrogance, that there’s a growing divide between the haves and the have-nots when it comes to the “information age,” and we should be aware of this because it shows some kind of failing of society to put the internet in the hands of people who need it but can’t afford it.

The assumption, of course, is that people want the internet but because of some great financial burden they can’t afford it and we as a society are failing members of our society as long as that’s the case.

This is often repeated with very little criticism or analysis and it’s just assumed that if you don’t have internet access, you want it but you just can’t afford it.

Thank God someone finally, after years of us having that drilled into our heads, has stepped forward to actually examine the folks that don’t have an internet connection and their actual reasons for it.

A little under one-third of U.S. households have no Internet access and do not plan to get it, with most of the holdouts seeing little use for it in their lives, according to a survey released Friday.

Park Associates, a Dallas-based technology market research firm, said 29 percent of U.S. households, or 31 million homes, do not have Internet access and do not intend to subscribe to an Internet service over the next 12 months.

The second annual National Technology Scan conducted by Park found the main reason potential customers say they do not subscribe to the Internet is because of the low value to their daily lives they perceive rather than concerns over cost.

Forty-four percent of these households say they are not interested in anything on the Internet, versus just 22 percent who say they cannot afford a computer or the cost of Internet service, the survey showed.

So these people could have an internet connection if they wanted one, they just choose not to have one. And, just so we’re clear, the study also found that not having a ‘net connection at home doesn’t preclude respondents from having access to the internet:

The answer “I’m not sure how to use the Internet” came from 17 percent of participants who do not subscribe. The response “I do all my e-commerce shopping and YouTube-watching at work” was cited by 14 percent of Internet-access refuseniks. Three percent said the Internet doesn’t reach their homes.

So what’s the big deal here?

Just another manufactured class-war with little grounds in the actual truth.

Whoda thunkit?

Reuters via /.