Internet connection; and 33 per cent felt they lacked knowledge or the confidence to
use it. These adults were also asked which of four statements best described what they
thought about using the Internet. Over half (55 per cent) of non-users chose the state-
ment ‘I have not really considered using the Internet before and I am not likely to in the future’.
This core group of non-Internet users represented 17 per cent of all adults in the UK.Social exclusion
The social impact of the Internet has also concerned many commentators because the
Internet has the potential effect of accentuating differences in quality of life, both
within a society in a single country, and between different nations, essentially creating
‘information haves’ and ‘information have-nots’. This may accentuate social exclusion
where one part of society is excluded from the facilities available to the remainder and
so becomes isolated. The United Nations, in a 1999 report on human development
(p. 63), noted that parallel worlds are developing wherethose with income, education and – literally – connections have cheap and instantaneous
access to information. The rest are left with uncertain, slow and costly access... the
advantage of being connected will overpower the marginal and impoverished, cutting off
their voices and concerns from the global conversation.While the problem is easy to identify, it is clearly difficult to rectify. Developed coun-
tries with the economies to support it are promoting the use of IT and the Internet
through social programmes such as the UK government’s UK Online initiative, which
operated between 2000 and 2004 to promote the use of the Internet by business and
consumers. In some developing countries, the Internet is seen as a catalyst for change.
TheGuardian(2005) reported how Ethiopia has developed a high-speed broadband
infrastructure to facilitate education and commerce.
Like other innovations such as mechanised transport, electricity or the phone, the
Internet has been used to support social progress. Those with special needs and interests
can now communicate on a global basis and empowering information sources are read-
ily available to all. For example, visually impaired people are no longer restricted to
Braille books, but can use screen readers to hear information available to sighted people
on the web. As we will see, this has implications for disability discrimination laws which
impact accessibility. However, these same technologies, including the Internet, can have
negative social impacts such as changing traditional social ideals and being used as a
conduit for crime. The Internet has facilitated the publication of and access to informa-
tion, which has led to many benefits, but it has also led to publication of and access to
information which most in society would deem inappropriate. Well-known problems
include the use of the Internet to incite racial hatred and terrorism, support child
pornography and for identity theft. Such social problems can have implications for mar-
keters who need to respond to laws or the morals established by society and respond to
the fears generated. For example, portals such as MSN (www.msn.com) and Yahoo!
(www.yahoo.com) discontinued their use of unmoderated chatrooms in 2003 since pae-
dophiles were using them to ‘groom’ children for later real-world meetings.CHAPTER 3· THE INTERNET MACRO-ENVIRONMENT
Social exclusion
Part of society is
excluded from the
facilities available to
the remainder.