Who is On the Internet?

Some of the interesting questions sparked by yesterday's discussion included one about who is it that's on the Internet, demographically- and psychologically-speaking? Are these the miscreants, the disaffected, the disturbed, the house-bound? Or, are they mainstream, not demographically or psychologically different people who happen to have broadband and an interest in typing to connect with others?

I'm still thinking about how best to answer this question. Part of the answer has to do with data usually filed under 'digital divide,' framed as sort of the reverse of that question (who is not on the web).

And, pretty clearly, there is a significant north-south divide in the global context of the digital divide, though this is narrowing as Asia and other parts of the globe sign on to the web. Within the U.S., whites and those who are middle-class (or higher) in SES were found to be more likely to be on the net in 1998, though this gap, too, is narrowing and shifting in interesting ways.

Still, this data is about "access" and that doesn't tell us much about virtual communities, and who it is that spends time on those.