Week 10: Question 2- What difference might the 'Digital Divide' make?

a) The term ‘Digital Divide’ has always been used to classify society into two specific groups. It has highlights the difference in access rates for computers and the Internet between different socio-economic groups. Those who have more money tend to have higher access rates than those who have very little, and where people live can have a major effect. Living in an urban and industrial environment may mean you have higher access to computers and the Internet more so than those who live in the countryside where there is little demand for that type of technology.

The more abundant the digital divide becomes, the larger the divide will become. Those who have access will be able to develop their skills as the technology improves, for example moving to Web 3.0 usage. On the other hand those who have little access (who were at a loss to begin with) will have even more of a struggle at entering today’s digital world because they have a smaller to no skills to begin with. This will certainly have social effects for all ages; children may have to use computers in school, but because they do not have one at home, they cannot understand the work that other children can. Similarly, people at work will have varying levels of I.T skills. It may be OK for some as they can accept they do not understand computers or they do not have to use them. For others it may affect their self esteem and feel degraded because they cannot use something that so many others can with great ease. Both of these examples may mean that different CofP will emerge between users and none users’ or rather digital natives and digital immigrants, as people will naturally bond/come together with those who have the same ideas and who have interests in the same things.

b) Global access issues across countries and regions can link largely with peoples’ socio-economic status. Most countries such as third world LEDCs (less economically developed countries) or LLEDCs will have never had the facilities to even have electricity in many regions, let alone access to the Internet. ‘Third world’ says it all, they are in a completely different world where there is no virtual there is no networking or browsing because of the little development the country has undergone, whether it be through war, government debt or other reasons. The difference the digital divide makes within regions of these countries is none- as they have never seen anything digital for there to be a divide. On a global scale, the divide has created a huge difference. I doubt that poorer countries will ever have the access that wealthier ones do now.

Talking about the digital divide in such a way makes me think- could we live without all this technology to hand? It does sound extremely materialistic but I doubt we could; we use it for social and business use. The way of life would change dramatically, and we would be living as people did before the computer was ever invented for personal and commercial use. I think we are extremely lucky to even have the ability to have a divide.