1. How is the metaphor of the ‘homeless stay wired ‘ useful, if at all, to issues of digital divides?
2. Reading the statistical data from the Pew Internet and American Life Project, what do you garner? Any unexpected surprises?
3. How exactly are digital divides persisting and why is the sociologically relevant?
4. What role does race and ethnicity play in digital divides?
5. What role does education play?
6. How is the global digital divide relevant?
7. If traditionally poorer countries eclipse the digital divide, what does this signify?
8. If traditionally poorer countries do not eclipse the digital divide, what does this signify?
9. What about socioeconomic stratification within countries?
In the Facebook Age
9. What about socioeconomic stratification within countries?
To some extent, the digital divide will always exist within countries. There will always be a sector of the country that can afford technology, and one that cannot. However, this concept is true with most goods, not only technology. Wealthier people are most likely to be educated both in the traditional way and in technology. Both of these types of education are necessary to utilize in daily life, giving an individual access to a more high-paying job, as many different occupations are becoming more and more dependent on the internet and the skills required to use it. Everybody has to prioritize what they are going to use their money for on a day-to-day basis. People who aren’t as wealthy need to focus on getting food on the table and paying housing bills before they can surf the Internet and buy luxury items, such as technology. Its doubtful that there will never be “black holes” within a country as it seems that class differences will always exist. And since socioeconomic stratification will always exist, there will remain a gap between the “haves” and “have nots”.
3. How exactly are digital divides persisting and why is this sociologically relevant?
According to the data we read, the biggest factors are income and education, which are easily transmitted between generations, thus those who have continue to have and those who don’t face more challenges to break through.
The education isn’t entirely reliant on the traditional idea of education–it also shares the meaning of technological skills, which have not been taught in basic foundations of education. If you are in a lower socioeconomic class, you may learn how to type in elementary and middle school, but the largest portion of technological education happens in high school or beyond.
Do you have the time to learn these skills? Can you afford to invest that kind of time?
If you have the skills, can you take the risk to spend financial resources on buying the hardware to use your skills. Example: You have website skills, you may need to invest in servers or other technologies to get your business off the ground.
Imagine the difficulty of access to technology as a decreasing line on a graph. While it is become ever-easier once you start “playing the game” and get past the initial challenges of becoming part of the information society, it becomes more rewarding and easier to gain more from the technology you are using. However, the bump in the graph that is the learning curve or initial financial investment, becomes larger and becomes an evermore serious issue for those still not “in the game.”
As stated in class, somebody with knowledge and a 200 dollar computer can achieve just as much as a regular person with a 2000 dollar computer. I don’t really think that digital divide is relevant. From my comparative government class, there is an author that suggests that there needs to be poor countries and therefore poor people in order to support the lifestyles and economies of the developed world. If we want to help the poor, technology is the least of their worries. Poor countries are more concerned domestic issues such as, health, education, and poverty. I think its important to realize that the digital divide copies the stratifications in our society, and therefore, in order to accurately address the digital divide, it is necessary to address the social issues that allow for the stratification in regular society. I think its better to look at our society as it is right now, than to focus on our inequalities that are copied online. There is a global digital divide, but it has little impact on global relations.
Response to question 8:
Education and wealth are the two important factors determining the digital divide. With the decreasing prices of technology, education significantly outweighs income. In poorer countries, many people are only focused on the bare essentials to live and do not include technology in this list. For their lifestyles, technology is not necessary. If the poorer countries do not emphasize the advantages of technology usage through education and programs, the digital divide will always remain. Technology is a big part of the advancement of privileged countries and these countries have used technology for a long time. These poorer countries inability to eclipse the digital divide signifies that they will never be able to “catch up” to the advanced countries that began utilizing modern communication technologies earlier.
How exactly are digital divides persisting and why is the sociologically relevant?
Digital divides exist throughout the world, but our response will be focused on the US. There is already a split between the educated and the non-educated, where the educated are able to use the internet more efficiently. The educated are able to obtain more information and resources more quickly while non-educated may not be able to retrieve any. People who are more educated and more literate have more coherency skills so that when they go on the internet, the comprehension is greater for those who have some form of higher education. This group is also able to access more information on the internet.
The internet is geared towards a certain group, at this point it seems to be geared towards middle class, and since the information that is online is geared towards the internets users, most information online pertains to the middle class. For example, in the first Witte and Manon article, they referenced lead poisoning on webMD. Lead poisoning is a condition that primarily effects those people with lower incomes, and therefore there is not much information on the internet dealing with lead poisoning and its treatments.
This is relevant sociologically because the technological divide can be equalized but the social inequalities associated with the Internet can only be bridged. While anybody can obtain the same technology, people will always have different educational backgrounds and will not be able to use the Internet as efficiently as others.
Also, although some people have claimed that the digital divide mirrors social inequalities, I believe that the Internet and other technologies are instead magnifying these issues.
We believe that the racial digital divides are due to differences in education and income among those groups, not due to race. The racial digital divide is very likely related with the educational achievement gap and the higher education attainment gap, which are caused by many factors such as the finance system of public schools, differential access to pre-school, and home conditions that are are not conducive to formal learning. Therefore, simple diffusion of digital technology would probably not be a complete solution for closing racial digital divides.
When education levels are held constant, the racial digital divide is no longer a significant factor. The chart on page 38 of the Witte and Mannon reading shows that black college graduates use the Internet 93% of the time, while white college graduates use the Internet 91% of the time. These two groups have had the same amount of education and use the Internet the same amount. Education can trump racial differences.
While there are opportunities to overcome racial divides, other factors have kept this divide fairly constant. The chart on page 30 in the Witte and Mannon reading shows that from 2000 to 2007, Internet use increased for both blacks and whites. However, a larger percentage of whites use the Internet than blacks. Race may not be the sole factor contributing to this divide, but its existence is still present across races.
There are other reasons, other than just race, that a divide exists between ethnic groups. Existing language barriers may prevent or limit certain ethnic groups or races from using the Internet. In a developed nation such as the United States, native speakers have an inherent advantage over non native speakers. For example, simply having a technology may not be sufficient for non native speaker to use the Internet and thereby bridge the digital divide.