ITU 2014 Report: 3 Billion People Using Internet

[engine]

There's always some useful information in there reports, so it's worth a bedtime read.

Over the past year, the world witnessed continued growth in the uptake of ICT and, by end 2014, almost 3 billion people will be using the Internet, up from 2.7 billion at end 2013. While the growth in mobile-cellular subscriptions is slowing as the market reaches saturation levels, mobile broadband remains the fastest growing market segment, with continuous double-digit growth rates in 2014 and an estimated global penetration rate of 32 per cent – four times the penetration rate recorded just five years earlier. International bandwidth has also grown steeply, at 45 per cent annually between 2001 and 2013, and the
developing countries’ share of total international bandwidth increased from around 9 per cent in 2004 to almost 30 per cent in 2013. Overall, almost all of the 166 countries included in the IDI improved their values in the last year.

Despite this encouraging progress, there are important digital divides that need to be addressed: 4.3 billion people are still not online, and 90 per cent of them live in the developing world.

ITU Report (270 page PDF) [itu.int...]

[samwest]

So why does it seem like there are so many LESS people using the internet (from my POV) this is good news for Google, but no news for many webmasters who spent the last 4 years being fleeced.

[pawas]

And most of them think Facebook is the internet.

[engine]

True, pawas.

Take a look at the low levels of comprehension in this Pew survey.
Pew Research: What Internet Users Know about Technology and the Web [webmasterworld.com]

samwest, more people are using than ever, however, what you're seeing is the majority of newbies on social media, which seems to take up most of some people's time. Some people appear to be on social media constantly, and I doubt they can be doing much else at the same time, imho.