22 percent of Americans do not use the Internet at all.

That’s 66 million.

That’s one of the interesting stats in an official FCC survey on internet use released today.

I’ve never understood people who say the internet is not for me. In about 10 years of use, even considering the early pre-WWW days were hairy, I’ve only had about 5 days offline and that’s because I was flying somewhere at the time.

I just can no longer imagine existing without it. You can cancel my TV and radio but please don’t cut my internet.

So why have 66 million people chosen to live their life without it? Or can they simply not afford it?

Even more curious was that, in the survey, when asked the most important reason for not using the Internet, no single reason stood out.

About 16% cite lack of “comfort in using a computer” as the main barrier. Dial-up users (only 6% of Americans now) mainly cited cost why they hadn’t migrated to broadband. 12% of non-users worried about risks online, which suggests all those ridiculous media scare stories about the net aren’t working.

14% scratched their heads and said they couldn’t see how the net was relevant to their life, saying either it’s a waste of time or there was nothing they want to see online.

How on earth do they know that when they are not online to check it out!

60+ people were the highest age bracket of non-users so I guess that makes sense and gives us some hope everyone growing up today uses the net.

Other interesting data in the survey:

• Knowledge of internet terms was so bad, only 40% understood what spyware was and only 16% had ever heard of a widget! 59% had never heard of a JPEG file and 56% didn’t even know the term operating system.
• The survey concludes that 86% of Americans have a mobile, 66% a desktop, 52% a laptop. It will be interesting in a year to see how many have an e-book or iPad.
• Not surprisingly, as it was the Federal Communications Commission that rang, no-one seem to have said they use bit torrents, illegally download stuff or realised there was porn online.

Read the full survey results here