Erika Mercado has a computer at home but uses the Internet more on her Palm Pixi smart phone. The 18-year-old Chula Vista resident logs on to Facebook at any chance she gets. "The apps are what I like the most."
Latinos, in fact, depend on their cell phones to access the Internet more than whites, partly because fewer have Internet connection at home, according to a Pew Hispanic Center report released Wednesday.
According to the report, 55 percent of Latinos use the Internet in their home, compared with 75 percent of non-Latino whites. Foreign-born Latinos were less likely than U.S.-born ones to go online at home.
Among Latinos, the less educated and less affluent were more likely to depend on a cell phone for Internet access, according to the report, which was based on national surveys of 1,375 Latinos, 1,664 whites and 630 blacks last year.
Gretchen Livingston, author of "Latinos and Digital Technology 2010," said the findings in the report lend "some support to the notion that mobile technologies may help to narrow the digital divide" between whites and Latinos.
Among the findings that support that view:
Forty percent of Latino cell-phone owners used their device to access the Internet compared with 34 percent for whites. Blacks were more likely to access the Internet from their cell phone, 51 percent.
Six percent of Latinos accessed the Internet from a cell phone but had no home Internet access, compared to 1 percent for whites.
Despite their reliance on cell phones for Internet access, Latinos were less likely than whites to own a mobile device, according to the report.
Seventy-six percent of Latinos owned a cell phone compared with 85 percent of whites and 79 percent of blacks.
The report noted that Latinos and whites who have similar socioeconomic characteristics have similar usage patterns of Internet and cell phones. Also, U.S.-born, English-dominant and bilingual Latinos were more likely to be online, have home Internet connection and own a cell phone, compared to foreign-born, Spanish-dominant Latinos.
The family of Irma Gutiérrez, from Chula Vista, has a home computer with Internet access, but no house phone. They don't need one. The family bought five Boost Mobile cellular phones with a radio feature, "one for each of my kids and for me."
"My son has a smart phone with touch screen and uses the apps all the time," she said. "He just loves his phone. It's worth every penny."
In addition to language fluency, age, levels of education and income were key factors affecting access and use of the Internet and non-voice applications on a cell phone, according to the report.
Just four in 10 Latinos who did not have a high school diploma were online, compared with seven in 10 for Latinos with a diploma and 9 in 10 for those with some college education.
Other key findings in the Pew report:
Younger Latinos were more likely than older ones to be using the Internet. Eighty-five percent of Latinos ages 18 to 29 were online, compared with 69 percent of Latinos ages 30 to 44; and 58 percent for those ages 45 to 59; and 29 percent for those 60 and older.
Forty-seven percent of Spanish-dominant Latinos used the Internet, compared with 74 percent of bilingual Latinos and 81 percent of English-dominant Latinos. However, the percentage of Spanish-dominant Latinos online jumped from 36 percent in 2009.
Thirty-seven percent of Spanish-dominant Latinos had a home Internet connection, compared with 61 percent of bilingual Latinos and 77 percent of English-dominant Latinos.
Sixty-eight percent of Spanish-dominant Latinos had a cell phone, compared with 78 percent of bilingual Latinos and 86 percent of English-dominant Latinos.
Javier Venegas, 37, has a computer and Internet access at his Chula Vista residence, but he depends on his iPhone4 "for everything."
He uses it to manage information, such review documents and read his e-mails, and uses many apps. "I can't leave my house without it."
To view the full report visit the Pew Hispanic Center at pewhispanic.org
