Hiding in Plain Sight

In a town hall last week, Jim Sensenbrenner, a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, was asked about the Obama-era internet privacy regulations that he had voted to strike down. The 2016 FCC rules prevented service providers such as Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T from selling your browsing history to advertisers without your consent. Or, they would have, starting in December, if they’d been allowed to take effect, which they weren’t. “You know, nobody’s got to use the internet,” Sensenbrenner told his aggrieved constituent.

True enough! But people on the internet still objected to this formulation, noting that a great many working adults would find it very difficult indeed to find jobs or navigate their daily lives without internet access. Just 13 percent of American adults are taking Sensenbrenner’s advice these days, according to Pew Research Center. Most are, like the 73-year-old congressman, older—41 percent of those 65 and up say they never go online. Rural Americans are twice as likely to be internet non-users than urban or suburban dwellers; the phenomenon is also correlated with low income and educational attainment. The vast majority are not staying offline to avoid the prying eyes of the Man: Only 3 percent cite privacy concerns. Most just say they’re not interested, or it’s too expensive or difficult to learn. Along with pristine blank-slate browsing histories and minds unclouded by meme exposure, those who have sworn off online interactions also have the opportunity to preserve the mystery and awe of the pre-web world, a time when finding stuff out involved opening books, making phone calls, and physically leaving your immediate surroundings.