The state of the Internet

Focus has released an infographic on the State of the Internet. Most of the data isn’t surprising, such as:

* more affluent people are more likely to have broadband access
* Japan has the fastest average broadband speed
* the 65+ age group is least likely to use the Internet

The surprising part for me is that only 7% of bloggers are in the 18-24 age range, with no mention of bloggers under 18. This struck me as interesting because I started blogging in 2001. I was 14 at the time, and as most young teenagers do, I wrote about my everyday life with the more-than-occasional whinge about how the world was against me. Young bloggers were the exception, not the norm, back then. I mostly read the journals of adults because journals of teens my age weren’t that common, and I was very jealous of the rare person my age who had their own domain, mostly because my parents wouldn’t let me buy anything online, much less my own webspace.

This has changed, though. I feel old in chats and forums, and I’m only in my early twenties. People are doing more sooner and younger. Kids are growing up with technology, and next thing you know, they’ll be pounding away at the keyboard from birth. A recent blogging award site included a teen category, which was nonexistent in my early days of blogging.

Young people do blog. We just don’t see them as much.