Pew: 60 Pct of Americans Use Wireless Internet

A survey finds that six in ten Americans are wireless Internet users: half using Wi-Fi or mobile broadband, and 40 percent using phones.

A new survey of American’s mobile technology use from the Pew Internet & American Life Project finds that 59 percent of American adults go online wirelessly, with about half (47 percent) going online using Wi-Fi or mobile broadband cards with a notebook or laptop computer, and 40 percent using the Internet from mobile phones. Some 47 percent indicated the regularly use both a mobile phone and a notebook computer to go online. The numbers are a sharp increase from a similar survey last year, which found that 51 percent of American adults did the same things in 2009.

The Pew Center surveyed over 2,200 U.S. adults about their online habits, access, and usage. The survey found that an overwhelming 76 percent of those surveyed use wireless devices to take photos; the survey found 72 percent of respondents use SMS messaging regularly; 54 percent use their phones to send photos or videos to others. Some 38 percent of respondents indicate they use a Web browser on their mobile devices—up from 25 percent last year—and 34 percent of respondents used their mobile devices to send or receive email.

One interesting finding: social networking is not strongly represented amongst folks who tap into the Internet from their phones, with only 23 percent of respondents saying their use their devices to tap into social networks, and only 10 percent saying they use their phones to send status information or updates to services like Twitter.

The study also broke down mobile use by age groups and ethnic groups: wireless use continues to grow among minority groups in the U.S., with 64 percent of African Americans and 63 percent of English-speaking Latinos online, compared to 57 percent of white respondents. And, of course, young people love their tech: 84 percent of respondents aged 18 to 29 use laptops and cell phones to connect to the Internet, with 69 percent of folks aged 30 to 49 and about half (49 percent) of folks aged 50 to 64 years. College graduates and folks earning less than $30,000 a year also saw the greatest growth in wireless Internet usage.