You know how you just checked your email on your phone 39 times in seven minutes? You might be shocked to know that there are over 100 million people in the European Union who have never been on the Internet. Not at home, on a phone or even at a Web cafe.
Reuters cites figures from the EU’s statistical agency, Eurostat, which says the number of never-Internetters comes mostly from the Eastern and Southern parts of Europe, like Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Cyprus and Portugal. No Web access means those in poorer regions haven’t been able to take advantage of lower cost goods and services.
“For many people today it seems difficult to live without the Internet,” Eurostat said.
“However, a decreasing, but still non-negligible, part of the EU population has never used it,” it added, reporting that 24 percent of 16-74 year olds across the 27 countries in the European Union have never accessed the Internet.
In Romania, 54% of the population have never used the Internet, not once, compared to the 94% with access in the Netherlands.
Think of that next time you’re complaining that you have no signal and need to look up the name of that one guy who was in that movie about the flying dragon who sang about self-esteem.
More than 100 million EU Citizens have never surfed the web [Reuters]
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I wonder what the percentage of Chinese who have never used the internet.
Heck, I wonder what the percentage of Chinese who do not have first-world utilities (electricity, water, sewage, etc)…
Lucky bunch.
Came here to post this.
Sorry I don’t live in a tipi!
Third world problems.
Lol, I see what you did there.
Zing!
That’s probably why they still have vampire/werewolf problems.
Wait, I can check my email on Razr phone from 2005? And what are these “upgrades” people are going on about these days?
I didn’t realize my phone was that old.
There are more than 100 million people in Africa who have never used a toilet.
There are more than 1 billion people in China who have never eaten a Big Mac.
There are more than 1 million lawyers in the US who have never used their ethics.
There are more than 400 Congressmen in DC who have never used their brains.
Sir;
I question your statistics about Africa and China.
But you’re spot on with the last two.
I found those statistics on the Internet, so they must be true.
See for yourself at http://goo.gl/srNHC
HAHA!!
Correct! 7th post down.
Man, these intertubes are AMAZIN’!
Then where does all that German porn come from?
I feel that the German porn is so much better than the American porn. Sometimes it almost seems high-class!
Waaaay better production value. You can tell they spend a lot of time lighting their sets.
That’s what you noticed with that. HMmm??
Big deal, there are millions of children here in the US who will go hungry today.
http://www.strength.org/childhood_hunger/
Lets create a new tax to fund a humanitarian aid mission in Europe so that every person can have free and clean access to the interwebs. In return we only ask that we be able to design the log in page so show smiling American families waving flags and $4 Viagra ads.
They won’t buy $4 internet Viagra in Europe. They can get the real thing for cheap there, ’cause we pay so much for it here.
I don’t complain when I have no internet, I just pick up my smartphone.
—- Too soon?
Also, its easier to live without something when you’ve never had it in the first place.
There was a time when we all didn’t have cellphones or internet…. at least I can remember a time when I didn’t….
This does not surprise me in the least. They are much more family-oreinted and not broken up like us and Europeans spend more time interacting and soclializing face-to-face than us.
I was wondering when somebody with Europe-is-superior-to-America complex would show up and say something.
Well, they are better than us, but not usually the ones in Bulgaria and Albania.
I can go to the store and buy 2 pounds of butter. Can they do that in Norway? No? Suck it, Scandinavia!
I wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and thank God I’m not French. Can they do that in Paris? No? Suck it, smarmy Frenchy people!
I can visit a foreign country without wanting to conquer it and kill all the people that don’t look like me. Can they do that in Germany? No? Suck it, Aryans!
I’ll believe Europeans are better than me as soon as they stop trying to tell me that they’re better than me. And, since they’ve spent centuries telling people how superior they are, that will never happen.
The butter shortage is actually an example of Norway’s superior management of natural resouces for long term gain:
Broken up? I’m pretty complete myself, other than a couple of moles and the wisdom teeth that I surrendered for the cause.
It has nothing to do with that. The issue is lack of infrastructure.
Um…no. It’s about infrastructure, poverty, and being stuck in an endless technological wasteland.
And oddly enough, the remaining 46% in Romania that are on the internet are mailing me scam e-mails on a daily basis…
My dad and MIL has never used the internet. MIL did come over to watch my son’s graduation, streamed online.
What the fuck is the internet?
lol
So…how do they shop?
So how do they get their porn? This is a travesty. There is only so much imagining Olga in her knee highs will do for the hetero populace.
OK.
Do this comparison.
Take low income/poverty-level communities in a remote rural community and survey their internet use.
Then compare it to Romania.
That’s a more valid comparison.
No surprise there; many new EU member nations are among the poorest in Europe. Just wait until Albania joins (if they ever do).
FWIW, Ireland was practically a third world country only 20 years ago. Look at them now…all the trappings of a wealthy nation, including crushing debt and austerity measures but they didn’t have to give up their backward patriarchal laws on divorce and abortion. Viva Europe! Viva Hypocrisy!