Who's online.

• Position: GRAPH: NATIONAL

The Internet turned 40 years old in 2009, and few other technological, advances have been so far-reaching. According to Internet World Stats, almost 2 billion people--a quarter of the world's population--are now online, for business and pleasure. As the article "'Defriending' Facebook" (p. 6) notes, the Internet does have some downsides, including the propensity to spawn addictive behaviors, especially among young people. It has also increasingly come to define the difference between developed and developing nations.

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ANALYZE THE GRAPH

(1) In how many countries does more than 80 percent of the population use the Internet?

a 2

b 7

c 12

d not dear from the graph

(2) Greenland's population in 2007 was about 56,000. About how many of them use the Internet?

a 42,000

b 46,000

c 49,000

d 52,000

(3) In 2002, 551 of every 1,000 Americans used the Internet. By 2007, that number had increased by about -- percent.

a 12

b 19

c 27

d 30

(4) Yemen ranks 123rd in the world for per capita Internet usage, at 115 people per 1,000. That is one-sixth the number of Internet users in --.

a Canada

b Japan

c Sweden

d Norway

(5) This graph does not indicate --.

a frequency of Internet usage

b age of users

c population size

d all of the above

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

(1) Are you surprised by the countries on this graph and those that aren't on it? Why or why not? What do the countries on the graph have in common? What differences exist among them?

(2) China has the world's largest number of Internet users--360 million--but that accounts for a little more than a fourth of China's population. What might this indicate about China?

(3) What...