But the Internet also is leading to fundamental changes in how Americans interact with government and each other. Now you literally have the world at your fingertips. Many chat rooms and bulletin boards post little more than cyber-graffiti. A flood of e-mails can be just as annoying as junk mail. This spring, students at the University of North Carolina system deluged lawmakers with e-mails protesting a proposed tuition hike.
Internet access varies with income, education and race.
And nearly three times more whites than blacks had e-mail. The Carolinas rank near the bottom of the country in the number of households with computers and Internet access. In 1998, only 21.4 percent of S.C. homes and 19.9 percent of those in North Carolina were online, says a U.S. Commerce Department study. Those numbers are changing. One Internet research company projects that 63 percent of U.S. households will be online by 2003.