What Is The Digital Divide?

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

It is most often referred to as the divide between “those with access to new technologies and those without” (Irving) or between “haves and have-nots”(Hecht) in terms of information technologies. However, using “access” to define digital divide is quite improper, since an opportunity to log on to the Web does not imply knowledge to use it efficiently. For example, situation in an underdeveloped country will not improve dramatically even if new technologies were artificially integrated in its economy, unless people have the proper skills to utilize them successfully. Likewise, the suitability of the second definition could also be questioned, as information should be measured in terms of quality, rather than of quantity, because specific information with exact economic value is what really matters in e-commerce (Foster 442-43). Probably the best way to characterize digital divide is as the growing social and economic disparities between the rich and the poor.

This report will examine how changes in technology are affected by society, in turn, how the society that produced this technology is impacted by this creation. The paper will specifically address the impact of personal computers, cell phones, and the internet on society, and how these technological advancements relate to the three major sociological perspectives; equilibrium model, digital divide, and cultural lag.

Schmitt, J. & Wadsworth, J. (2002). Give PCs a chance: Personal computer ownership and the digital divide in the United States and Great Britain. London: The Centre for Economic Performance.

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

Over the past few decades our generation has witnessed a communication revolution no generation has ever witnessed before. The Internet was fully commercialized in the U.S. by mid-1990s and instant communication including the World Wide Web, email, and instant messaging have all played part of an enormous impact on media, commerce, and politics during that time and up until now. U.S. scholar and activist Robert McChesney has spent the past twenty years studying and documenting the effects of this Internet revolution and its relationship with capitalism and democracy. In his 2013 work “Digital Disconnect: How Capitalism is Turning the Internet Against Democracy,” McChesney addresses the relationship between the economic power and the digital

Our world gets more digital every day. Nearly everyone has a smartphone and a computer. Even more people have a TV and if people do they are in contact with the digital world everyday.

But what has leads to this big unbalance? Our team think that it’s the work of the digital divide, which is a phenomenon that occurs from the mid-20th century. The birth of the internet has allowed other technology to escalate at an impressive rate. As such, the more internet usage a country has, the more developed it is. For example, Africa has internet usage rate of 0% except for certain small area, while rich regions like America and Australia

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

The term Digital Britain is advancing for the great nation to prepare itself for the challenges in the coming generations. It also refers to a picture where internet technology, communication, and information are combined into how businesses operate.

There are three causes of the Digital Divide. One of the three causes is an economic barrier. The cost for a year’s internet is about a hundred to a few thousand dollars, which is about the same amount as buying a computer. If there were many firms that provided internet, then there will be lower prices and higher efficiency. Since most companies are not competitive, the price of internet access is expensive. In North Korea and Cuba, Internet connection is only available in government controlled cafes, government offices, and universities. In other nations, internet users must have a special license. These factors limit the access of the internet and increases the Digital Divide globally (“Digital Divide” 3).

From digital age we have a more visual society. Images and photography have become part of our lives. The internet is overrun with images meaning the communication between others through cyberspace is more open than face to face communications. Digital age has already changed the way we shop, work and play, communication has incredible effect on our lives. Digital age goes so far beyond the areas of marketing and social

In today’s world Internet has become one of the most important mediums of communication. It has become the lifeline of our survival. It has removed the entire social, economic and physical barrier and has immense effect on our day to day activity.

I would like to share with you what I have recently learned about obtaining information through the Internet. The Internet is a tremendous potential source of information about virtually any imaginable topic of interest. However, because there is no regulation or quality control over what people choose to publish online, it is crucial to learn ways of distinguishing credible, reliable, factually accurate information sources from those that are not credible, unreliable, factually inaccurate sources. For example, websites that are maintained by government agencies, accredited university research programs, and licensed professionals are good candidates to be considered reliable sources of information online.