Digital Divide

The term digital divide describes the uneven distribution of information and communication technologies (ICT) in society. This encompasses differences both in access (first-level digital divide) and usage (secondlevel digital divide) of computers and the Internet between (a) industrialized and developing countries (global divide), (b) various socioeconomic groups in single nation-states (social divide), and (c) different kinds of users with regard to their political engagement on the Web (democratic divide). In general, these differences are believed to reinforce social inequalities and to cause a persisting information or knowledge gap amid those people having access to and using the new media (“haves”) and those people living without (“have-nots”).

A visitor looks at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab initiative “One Laptop per Child” at the United Nations Development Programme stand of the World Summit on the Internet Society, November 18, 2005, at the Kram Palexo in Tunis. The initiative is a partner in ITU's Connect the World Programme, which has been developing a “one-hundreddollar laptop,” assisted by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, led by Professor Nicholas Negroponte. The computers are designed for use by schoolchildren in developing countries.

Source: AFP/Getty Images.

The metaphor of the digital divide became popular by the mid-1990s when the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) of the U.S. Department of Commerce (1995) first published its research report on Internet diffusion among American citizens. Under the title “Falling Through the Net: A Survey of the ‘Have Nots’ in Rural and Urban America,” the results of this analysis revealed widespread inequalities in national ICT access. Especially migrant or ethnic minority groups and older, less affluent people living in rural areas with low educational attainments were excluded from Internet services. This pattern was confirmed by follow-up surveys of the NTIA which indicated also an initial gender gap in favor of men.

Although diffusion rates of the Internet were subsequently rising in all groups, additional studies apart from those first policy reports proved a perpetuating digital divide both in the United States and abroad. For the main part, these examinations were based on secondary analyses of cross-sectional data with few panel exceptions and some ethnographic projects in specific communities. Although varying methodologically with regard to their units of analysis (e.g., individuals versus households), their operationalizations of ICT access and usage (e.g., at home, at work, both, or in public places), and their measurement of respective group differences (e.g., users/non-users in absolute percentages versus odds ratios of adoption), the findings of these studies suggested some common characteristics of the digital divide.

In single nation-states, access and usage of computer technology is stratified by age, education, ethnicity/ race, family structure, gender, income, occupation, and place of residence. In this way, young Western men with high qualification profiles, working in well-paid managerial positions and living in small urban families with children are most of all advantaged to adopt the new media. This applies both to the formal possession of ICTs (material or physical access) and the [Page 187]motivation to deal with those devices (motivational access) as well as to the experience and skills provided to use the Internet (skills access) and the amount of self-administered time spent online for specific purposes (usage access). Here, usage among advanced groups includes, in particular, the proficient search for instrumental information on the Web to address professional or political interests. On the contrary, lessadvantaged groups have been shown to lack those basic navigation skills and to prefer entertainment or diversion features on the Internet instead. Their political involvement has therefore not increased with the rise of new information technologies.

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