The Digital Divide

The term the Digital Divide refers to the gap between people with effective access to digital information technology and those with very limited or no access at all. The Digital Divide may be classified based on gender, income, race, and locations. After learning about the Digital Divide I do think that it effects interpersonal relationships. Depending on the technologies that we use, it places us on the Digital Divide.

From experience, I have found that technologies do either enhance or hurt interpersonal relationships. Last week, our class was asked to track how much time we spend the social networking site, facebook. On average I spend in between 20-45 minutes a day on facebook, looking at friends profiles,pictures, and writing on their walls, or talking to them on instant messenger. Most of the people who I am friends with on facebook, are people who are around my age, and are familiar with new technology, and use it in their everyday lives. Because of this particular social networking site, the interpersonal relationships that I currently have with my friends has grown significantly.

The usage of the Internet has grown a lot since it first came out. In some countries in the world Internet usage is a lot lower then others. For example Asia's usage is 41.1 % compared to the Middle East, who's usage is 2.9%. There is clearly a huge percentage gap between these two countries, but how do we stay connected with them so well?

Here is a breakdown of Internet users worldwide by millions provided by internetworldstats.com:

Asia: 650

Europe:390.1

North America: 246.8

Latin America/Caribbean: 173.6

Africa: 54.2

Middle East: 45.9

Oceania/ Australia: 20.6

Two summers ago I had the opportunity to do a study abroad trip in Europe. We visited four countries, London, Paris, Prague, and Budapest. In every country we stayed in, we had to find an Internet cafe somewhere in the city, so that we could stay in touch with our friends and family back home. In every Internet cafe that we found, it was so difficult to use their computers because it was in their native language, the letters on the keyboard were in different places than they are here, and the whole format was foreign to me, and we couldn't communicate with the workers for help because they couldn't speak English, or they could and just pretended that they couldn't. All of the computers that we used were so slow, and it took forever for the Internet to load, and randomly they would shut off. I would get so irritated that if they shut off, I just wouldn't get back on. I never thought that the trying to get on the Internet in another country would be such a trying experience, and that I didn't know how to use a computer or get on the Internet.

The Digital Divide has become such a serious problem that a core component

of President Obama's economic recovery plan is "expanding broadband lines across America" to give everyone the chance to get online. President Obama feels that broadband should be accessible to everyone the same way that electricity and telephones are. Another solution that we talked about in class as a solution to the Digital Divide is cell phones. Today, all cell phones are capable of getting on the Internet. Its a lower expense, its portable and you can get on any time that you want. I don't think that the cell phones would help close this problem because what about people who don't have money to have a cell phone and pay for it every month. In other countries such as Africa, there is the "know how to factor", does everyone have the education and know how to use a cell phone for the Internet?

In class we read, "Reconceptualizing the Digital Divide" by Mark Warschauer. One of the stories that stood out to me was " A Model Computer Lab" this situation took place in Egypt, where the United States donated computers for a computer lab at a local university. The computer lab never got used because all of the computers sat in storage because they were not taught how to put them together and then use them, so that they could teach someone to teach the students how to use the computers.

I think the biggest problem when it comes to the Digital Divide is that a lot of people don't have the skills or education to use computers and the Internet. I strongly believe that technology keeps us connected with friends and family and other countries. But if we don't have the skills to learn how to use the Internet it can be seen as a disadvantage. I think that there is some way that everyone can learn to use the Internet, no matter their age, race, or socio-economic class, without leaving them behind.