The Internet usage boom that began in the 1990s seems to have ended, according to the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California. American homeowners who want access to the Internet already have it, usually at high speed, says center director Jeffrey Cole, and some who have it apparently no longer want it.

“Internet penetration has largely plateaued,” Cole told The Associated Press in its story Wednesday (Nov. 29, 2006) about the center’s annual survey of how people use the Internet … or don’t.

Twenty-two (22) percent of Americans aren’t on the Web, the survey determined. Of those, more than a quarter are former users who dropped out. Half of them say they have no intention of returning online. That’s the highest-ever number of people who, according to the survey, are purposely shunning Internet access and forming a permanent subclass of non-users.

How this development affects real estate transactions, and agents’ increasing reliance on the Web for marketing, is unclear. But it reinforces the need for agents to use a media mix in attempts to reach prospects. If they lean on the Web alone, the study indicates, agents’ advertising will miss almost a fourth of its potential audience.

Although the Web became available to the public in 1992, LivingInternet.com reports widespread interest began three years later and grew significantly through 1998. The numbers of users climbed steadily as high-speed broadband connections like cable and DSL made Web access faster, more convenient, and more entertaining.

USC’s study says the country’s largest group of Internet users today are youths age 18 and younger. Ninety-nine (99) percent of them are online, primarily because most U.S. schools have some form of ‘Net access. In contrast, the most disconnected group of users is at the other end of the age spectrum. Among Americans age 66 and older, only 38 percent are online. For all other age groups, at least 74 percent are online.

People who leave the Web don’t do so out of dissatisfaction, Cole says. Instead, most drop off because they change jobs or their computer breaks.