Access to Information - The Widening Gap Essay example

According to Mary H, digital divide is not only the gap between people who have access to technology and those who do not, it is also the inequality in the kind of access. Though most Americans access the technology, the difference in the quality of access remains. Yet the Constitution guarantees the equality of opportunity, the digital divide subsists in the USA because there is economic disparity among people. Therefore, some social class does not earn the advantages of technology and the gap between upper class and lower class will grow up.

The term “digital divide” was coined to define this growing gap between the people who do not have access to modern technology (more specifically the poor, rural, elderly, and handicapped) and the people who do (wealthy, middle class, and those living in urban/suburban areas). In urban areas especially, a common assumption made is that everyone has access to this modern technology. People see technology all around them and assume it is integrated into everyone’s life. Because of the simplicity technology offers, it has become the engine behind economics, politics, and communication. In rural areas, most people know the potential of modern technology, but don’t have the resources to achieve it. “It has been observed that households earning incomes over $75,000 are 20 times more likely to have home internet access than those at lowest income levels and 10 times more likely to have a

Since the launch of the Internet as a global communication network and the boom in communication technologies, our world has been overwhelmed by a new phenomenon – digital divide. It has gradually turned into a major, constantly growing world issue, threatening to further increase the gap between advanced and developing countries. Yet, is digital divide really an unprecedented occurrence or a natural and unavoidable trend? “Divide” is certainly a word whose meaning could be traced back to the mere dawn of human history. It goes even deeper – to human nature itself: to sex and racial differentiation, to unequal physical and mental powers, to different

In her call to action, The People’s Platform; Taking Back Power and Culture in the Digital Age, Astra Taylor addresses underlying social and economic forces of the internet and differential perspectives towards it. Taylor discusses the new internet in which content is king and, people are now the product, this is called Web 2.0. She discusses this topic from a couple viewpoints; those who would believe that the internet is truly the new people’s platform and that it is the golden age of sharing and collaboration, called the Techno-optimists. The counterparts of this interpretation of the internet are what she calls the Techno-Skeptics, who have a similar mindset in that of Nicholas Carr, an author about technology in the modern age, with the

According to the United Nations Agency, approximately 3.2 billion people have used the Internet since 2015, which has made a drastic increase since 2000 with there only being 738 million internet users then. That is almost 43% of the world's population that uses the internet. A controversial topic that is commonly being brought up in today's arguments is the use of the internet and how people believe it is becoming such a detriment to our society, because nobody in this generation acknowledges the value of books, or even prefers to use an actual copy such as a paperback. The internet, such as Google, is being classified as lazy or ignorant, but reading a book is labeled as literate or being knowledgeable. Thesis:“Teaching in the #Age Literacy” by Jennifer L. Nelson and “Is Google Making Us stupid?” by Nicholas Carr, both analyze the pros and cons to having the internet and information at our fingertips, how it is affecting the way we read and analyze text and different scientific experiments that have been put to use to decode why we think the way we do now and how to improve our intelligence.

In the late 20th century, technology began advancing so quickly that entire world economies underwent extraordinary transformations in very little time. It used to be only a handful of powerful people and corporations interacting in global trade and commerce, but technology has made it so “countries like India are now able to compete for global knowledge,” giving leaders and companies the ability to work with more nations than ever before (Friedman 7). The internet has given men and women the power to connect, communicate and provide information to people across the planet in an instant. It has given people the opportunity to seek knowledge, educate themselves and single-handily play a role in the world economy. This is called

One detrimental consequence of the technological society we live in is the development of new power struggles that reveal themselves in the digital divide. In the dawning of the technological age that has brought us into a globalized

An increase in Internet maturity, correlates with an increase in real per capita GDP on average of $500. Looking back to the Industrial Revolution, it’s growth took 50 years to achieve these same results. This demonstrates both the magnitude and impact the internet delivers to all levels of society. In the French Economy, the internet had reported to have destroyed 500,000 jobs over the past 15 years, but has also over those same amounts of years has created 1.2 million new ones. For every job the internet has taken away, it’s created twice the amount. It’s safe to the internet has been able to increase the worlds GDP bringing great growth to the

Nicholas Carr’s “How technology created a global village -- and put us all at each other’s throats”, conveys the message that technology was contrived to join people together, but all it is doing is disjointing them. Conversely, a dark place was shaped online, over the years, and there is no sign of the situation resolving.

One can appreciate the modern technology and how it simplified life, but fail to use it to the full extent. Throughout these past decades, technology has brought both advantages and disadvantages to the humankind. One of the disadvantages deals with government involvement, giving them the access to information and the power to make sure they have everything under control which leaves its users with limitation and undemocratic. The good news is this situation only leads to certain measure leaving the users with freedom. Freedom giving people a chance to express themselves, even though they fail to see the immunity they own. Democracy tends to be part of the technological system as well, most users use it to ensure democratization is all around the world by including its part of communication. Democratization theory is that Cyberspace provides a various amount of internet sources for people to access, whether it is to communicate or share moments with one another. “Democracy in Cyberspace: What Technology Can and Cannot Do for Us,” is a text written by Ian Bremmer, sharing evidence-based information sources that point out the real deal of internet and it’s reflection towards its users. One’s experience of freedom is determined by the amount that is given to them, including their dependence on one another, as well as, providing the chance to define technologist’s neutrality. Advanced developments have occurred a lot throughout these years for the sake of technology.

The internet itself now plays an important role in our everyday lives, and has revolutionised both society and education. Following the invention of electronic computers in the 1950’s, the main format of the internet (that we still use today) was invented in 1978, before going global in the 1980’s. Primarily, the invention of the internet is important, due to how it revolutionised technology, and in such a short amount of time. Thanks to the internet mobile phones, laptops, and developed social media have all been invented, following the global demand during the 1980’s. As well as this, the invention of the internet has benefitted society due to the new technology that has sped up general tasks around the home, the spread of news and political topics, and the time used for revision, particularly with students. Just like the Civil Rights movement, without the internet, our modern society would be very

Since its introduction on a public scale in the 1990s, the internet has been associated with many changes in social experience. Many aspects of social life such as education, work, commerce and even personal relationships have changed through the internet. However, researchers have found that, at least in the early years, access to the internet is shaped according to gender, class, ethnicity and education. During the 1990s the typical information technology user was a white, male, professional with a background in IT. This bias in internet access was named the ‘digital divide’ to point out the implied social inequalities. It was said that the internet was

Having access to this technology offers many advantages that have simply become a way of living. Having access to the world's largest database of information, being able to contact people from miles away in a matter of seconds, and being able to know what's going on in countries all over the world are advantages people with access to technology have other those who don't. The problem that arises with this is that exactly— the divide between those with technology and those without. The gap between those in upper and lower classes and those with and without technology are not only correlated, but the latter has a direct influence over the

When girls were only allowed to pick subjects based on whether or not it would make them a ‘good wife’ or when classes were chosen based on race, people spoke up. They said things like “to educate girls is to reduce poverty.” It was considered unacceptable to have such inequalities in society and yet we are now faced with another issue involving the inequality of education and no one is saying a word. In the developed world we are becoming increasingly reliant on the internet, a spectacular tool for education, forgetting about those without access. We have developed it into a tool that can educate a generation of children. People say that “education is the key to success”, so why are we creating resources exclusively available online when 59.6% of the population do not have internet access? With the knowledge available, the internet has truly become the school without teachers. Yet in the poorer countries it has become the school with students as people cannot afford to access the internet. Although the internet would become less costly in the long run, it is not being seen as a good alternative to what we have now. When we have a cheaper alternative to school, why are we not endorsing the internet as an instrument to better our lives? It is a tool that can educate people in so many things it should become a priority to make the internet inclusive and used by

As Freedom House notes in it’s discourse on “Obstacles to Access” when examining the status of American Internet, “access, cost, and usability remain barriers… particular [for] senior citizens, people… in rural areas, and low-income households” (Freedom House). Therefore, not only is cost a barrier to even having Internet access, and thus the “empowerment” that entails, but both the Internet speed and availability, both hallmark disadvantageous of living far away from central cities, severely damper this ability to empower. In fact, I would say this dampens all three facets of Internet empowerment. However, as Freedom House concurrently notes 80% of American households subscribe to a broadband connection. Thus, I would not say that the Internet is only empowering an elite group just based on resources, but it is definitely exclusionary to people with lesser monetary and location-ary means.