[smartBridges] Internet usage stats

[Bobby Bounds]

Current Events Topic:       "When it comes to Internet use, at least, the East Coast and West Coast rule. By contrast, fewer than half of all Southerners go online. So says the latest study of our online habits from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, which examined how different regions of the country use the Net. The findings offer more proof that Internet usage is increasingly diverse. With 68 percent of adult residents having Internet access, the Pacific Northwest stood out as the most wired region of the country, according to the Pew project, a private nonprofit effort to track how U.S. online usage is evolving. The Northwest was closely followed by New England, California and what the survey called the National Capital region (Maryland, Virginia, Washington, D.C.). The increasingly wired Mountain States (Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming) also placed well above average, with 64 percent of its residents having online access. By contrast, southern states � Alabama, Arkansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and West Virginia � had the lowest overall access rate, at 48 percent." - Source