First it was the alpha geeks, the creators. Then the early adopters. Not so long ago, the Soccer Moms and the rest of the middle class jumped with both feet into a daily reliance on the internet. And now?

“You don’t need a TV. You don’t need a radio. You don’t even need a newspaper,” says Mr. Pitts, an aspiring poet in a purple cap and yellow fleece jacket, who says he has been homeless for two years. “But you need the Internet.”

This weekend, The Wall Street Journal has this fascinating — if highly anecdotal — account of how the digital life has become a necessity, not a luxury, for some of San Francisco’s homeless.