- To everyone reading this story: This is not about you. This is about the 4.4 billion other people on this planet who have never been online.
That number is the finding of a new study that tried to quantify what the global offline population looks like. The report, based on research in collaboration with Facebook and written by the consulting firm McKinsey & Co., found that of the estimated 7 billion-plus people alive today, more than half are offline. This is after 1.8 billion people joined us here on the Internet since 2014.
The report is part of Facebook's efforts to expand Internet access to underserved parts of the world.
It's been a long time since I have gone a week without using the Internet. I think it would be a worthwhile challenge to go a day or two now. Anybody want to give it a try?1.8 billion people joined us here on the Internet since 2014
This would suggest that the solution is to wait until about August 2016 when the rest of the planet finishes coming on board at that rate. But 2014 appears to be a typo; it should have been 2004. The Washington Post also mentions that about 10% of Americans choose not to go online.