24% of Israelis never surf the Internet, and 31% find no interest or usefulness in it. The figures are from a survey of Internet trends in Israel carried out by the Smith Institute among 502 respondents in February this year, as part of the World Internet Project. Israel is represented in the research project by the Research Center for Internet Psychology at the Herzliya Interdisciplinary Center, headed by Prof. Yair Amichai-Hamburger.
The survey also sheds light on digital gaps in Israeli society, finding that 15% of those who do not surf the Internet are in fact incapable of doing so. A further 15% say they are simply too busy, and 14% do not use the Internet because they have no computer or other suitable device. Only 8% of the non-surfers said they did not use the Internet for religious reasons.
Altogether, 76% of the adult population in Israel have an Internet connection, 5% more than in 2011. Among young people aged up to 29, the proportion of those who surf the Internet is 85%, compared with 62% among those aged 50 and above.
Only 33% of the haredi (ultra-Orthodox Jewish) community use the Internet, compared with 85% of secular and traditional Jews. Among ethnic minorities in Israel, the proportion of Internet users is 63%.
Switching to smartphone
Since a similar survey in 2011, a substantial rise has taken place in the proportion of Internet users who surf via smartphone, from 23% to 74%. Nevertheless, most Israelis (91%) still surf via computer. Tablets account for just 29% of Internet surfing.
A little surprisingly, Israelis still do not rely on the Internet as a job search tool, and only 32% look for work that way. This is still three times as many as in 2011.
On the other hand, about 40% of Israelis now use the Internet to pay bills and carry out banking transactions.
The survey also covers Israelis' opinions on various matters, such as politics (83% agree that people should feel free to criticize the government via the Internet); government supervision of the Internet (32% support greater government supervision than exists today); and privacy (50% say they are not concerned if the government checks their Internet activity).
Most users still do not consider information found on the Internet to be reliable, with only 29% saying that all or most information on the network is reliable.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on July 8, 2014
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