Charts: Tech take-up is faster than ever
In the UK, 6.7m people have never used the internet, according to the Office for National Statistics.
But that said, not only is the number 700,000 fewer than a year earlier (2012), but the total number of users is now 44.3m – that’s 87 per cent of all adults.
What’s more – and as you might expect – 99 per cent over 16-24 have used the web.
It’s not quite the same story for those over the age of 75. Just 36 per cent have used the internet – although that's up seven percentage points since the end of 2011.
So, relativity taken into account, more people than ever – across all ages – are using the web.
And of course, embracing technology is not something limited to Britain or, indeed, to the internet.
See the rapid take-up of technologies in the US over the twentieth century:
Source: Dallas Fed
Source: Berkeley
Diffusion gives you the rate at which people jumped on board a new technology or idea and, therefore, its spread through culture.
You can see how, from a technology's inception, diffusion always increases. Look at video recorders – 0-70 per cent in well under 10 years.
In exactly the same way, internet use has gone up and up since its advent. And more than that, it's done that in both the developed and developing worlds.
Figures from the International Telecommunication Union show 250m people came online in 2012, with the estimate that 40 per cent of the world will be online by the end of 2013.
Source: ITU
So while those for whom the web still feels novel are catching up more slowly, they are catching up.
And with the number of households in developing countries with internet increasing from 12 per cent in 2008 to 28 per cent in in 2013, and internet users growing at double-digit rates over the past ten years, things are – and look set to continue – getting better.