For me, it's a need. I make a lot of my income online and without access to internet I would be useless. It also comes in handy because as a public transportation user, I can't always maneuver my way around the city to run the errands I need to run. Thus, I take my errands online!
I don't know how the US is for this, but here in the UK, there are certain local or national government services which you can ONLY do on line, for instance, if you claim Housing Benefit, or the new Universal Credit, which the government is trying to replace all welfare benefits with.