Digital Inequalities

MC 7019: Week 2 Blog

Credit: Signe Wilkinson, The Philadelphia Inquirer

When first hearing the terms "digital inequalities" and "digital divide" this past weekend, both my mother and my fiancé responded along the lines of this: "So, you mean when 5-year-olds know how to use iPhones faster than 80-year-olds?" I responded, "Well, kind of. But much more than that."

The digital divide refers to a "basic level of stratification in access to a computer and internet connection," as researcher Will Marler puts it. In its simplest form, the digital divide is the difference between the connected and those who are not online at all. While digital inequalities are certainly present among some Baby Boomers and Gen Z, mass communication scholars show that they exist beyond just age. Digital inequalities persist in the differences between education, class, location, race, ethnicity, gender and more in our society. They are most seen in ways the privileged benefit from the Digital Age and the ways the disadvantaged fall far behind from it.

A prime example of the disparities that exist in our digital society is the challenges some students faced when the COVID-19 pandemic moved classes virtually rather than in person. While some children sat comfortably in their homes attending their online classes, others who did not have internet in their homes had to sit in the parking lot of McDonald's, Starbucks and public libraries to access Wi-Fi to get online. This problem, which also existed in high schools and universities, gives privileged students who can easily access the internet an unfair advantage to their less privileged classmates, leaving them void of crucial information from their classes and lagging in the long run because of it. Like all the other inequalities that the pandemic has shed light on, technology has been leaving the disadvantaged far behind at an alarming rate, impacting their work, education and access to important information.

You might think that one solution to the problem may be to have universal internet access so that everyone can be on the same playing field. However, the assumption that people who are connected know how to use the internet is not true. Research shows that those with more privileged backgrounds tend to participate more in "capital-enhancing" online activities such as seeking health information, looking for a job and gathering news rather than recreational activities such as playing games, gambling and browsing for fun as those in lower socioeconomic levels do. In the time of the COVID-19 pandemic where access to health information is vital for the health and safety of everyone, precisely the group that would stand a better chance of benefitting from capital-enhancing online activities are not participating in them and suffer greatly from those consequences.

It is important to point out that the blame should not be put on these disadvantaged groups. We as a society need to promote digital literacy in order to teach productive uses of online activities, give better access to the internet and increase positive attitude toward technologies and the internet among non-users. On the other hand, maybe we as a society need to rely less on digital technologies in our education systems so that students without internet at home will not be left behind. How can we really bridge the digital divide? Only time will tell which solution is better. Nonetheless, recognizing digital inequalities that exist between classes, locations, races, etc. are the first step to narrowing the digital divide.