Greater priority needs to be placed on increasing digital take-up in Glasgow, which has the lowest number of people online at home of any major UK city, a report has warned.
The Carnegie UK Trust found a digital divide between the city and the rest of the UK meant that broadband take-up was lower than average across all demographic groups.
It warned that exclusion from online access would widen existing inequalities in the city unless action was taken.
It comes as the Department for Work and Pensions is moving to a "digital by default" position where benefit claims will have to be made online.
Jobcentres are increasingly asking job seekers to apply for work online or face sanctions.
The report finds that fewer skilled manual workers in particular access the internet at home, with 47% doing so in Glasgow compared to a 72% UK average.
Overall, only 60% of Glaswegians are online at home. Only 57% of those not online expressed a wish to go online in the future.
The report rejects a theory that people with pay TV subscriptions are not taking up the option of internet access.
In the city, 62% of those offline said they preferred using the phone or dealing with people face to face.
Douglas White, senior policy officer for the Carnegie UK Trust, said: "Many people have hypothesised about the reasons for low broadband take up in Glasgow.
"Suggestions put forward in the past have included a 'cultural antipathy' to the internet amongst Glaswegians. However, the root causes of the very low uptake of broadband in Glasgow have never been fully researched before.
"The disadvantages, both social and financial, of not being online are clear and we hope the report will bring together those organisations with a vested interest in getting Glaswegians online in order to work on a solution based on our findings."
The report contains a range of recommendations for encouraging Glasgow's reluctant citizens online, including the setting up of a digital participation fund, and a city-wide branding exercise to encourage uptake.
It also says "trusted intermediaries" such as voluntary workers, community activists, health professionals and social workers could help to get more people online.
Last year the communications regulator, Ofcom, found Glasgow residents were missing the benefits of the internet because of poor broadband uptake
It was the first to reveal the city had the lowest take-up of broadband of any major city in the UK. Only 50% of adults in Glasgow had fixed broadband in 2011, Ofcom's annual report said, compared with a UK average of 76%. In Scotland as a whole 68% of the population is connected to broadband, up 7% on last year.
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