Social access to the Internet

The relative costs and expertise associated with using the Internet, labele d technological and social access, have led to a concern about the rise of a "digital divide" between information haves and have-nots. To address whet her and to what extent the Internet has become a medium of the masses and t o identify the factors associated with social access to the Internet, I exa mine Internet use data from two statewide surveys, the Carolina Poll and th e Indiana Poll, conducted during spring 1998. Multivariate analysis reveals that income, education, age, and family structure are important social det erminants of on-line access and that Internet use is lowest among single mo thers, members of lower socioeconomic groups, and older respondents. Althou gh the online population is beginning to diversify, the Internet cannot yet claim a committed, nonelite mass audience. It is argued that the dispariti es in Internet use portend a looming information gap between those with acc ess and those without.