DIGITAL DIVIDE

Digital Divide



Digital Divide

What the Digital Divide

Digital divide refers to the socioeconomic difference between those communities that have access to Internet and those without, although such inequalities can also refer to all the new technologies of information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as personal computer, the telephone mobile, the broad band and other devices. As such, the digital divide is based on differences prior to access to technology. This term also refers to the differences between groups according to their ability to use ICT effectively, due to different levels of literacy and technological capacity. It is also sometimes used to indicate differences between groups that have access to quality digital content and those without (Ackerman, 2001).

The opposite term is most commonly used is the digital inclusion and digital inclusion genuine. The concept of digital divide is his predecessor in the report called "The Missing Link," which was published in 1982 by the Maitland Commission. This revealed the findings on the lack of telecommunications infrastructure in developing countries, citing the phone. The English term comes from the digital divide, used during the Clinton administration, although its authorship cannot be located with precision. While some references, cited Simon Moores and coined the term, Hoffman, Novak and Schlosser refer to Lloyd Morrisett as first used it to refer to the fracture could occur in the United States between " connected "and" not connected ", if not overcome the serious differences between regions, races and ethnicities, classes and genders, through public investments in infrastructure and aid to education. In any case, during this administration led to a series of reports published under the title Falling Through the Net , which left evidence of this phenomenon been kept in American society at the end of the decade of 1990.

From this origin, some authors prefer Spanish, the term digital divide or digital stratification, to be much more vocal about what it really means. The translation into other Latin languages like French has also opted for the term of fracture. However, the majority of Hispanic authors opted for the gap, softer and politically correct. Some other expressions which have been used to refer to the Digital Divide are digital divide, gap and digital divide.

Effects by race

A new digital divide is appearing with minorities accessing from cell phones and mobile devices for more social and entertainment purposes. This causes issues as more and more of information services go online including job resources. "Fifty-one percent of Hispanics and 46% of blacks use their phones to access the Internet, compared with 33% of whites, according to a July 2010 Pew poll. Forty-seven percent of Latinos and 41% of blacks use their phones for e-mail, compared with 30% of whites. The figures for using social media like Facebook via phone were 36% for Latinos, 33% for blacks and 19% for whites... A greater percentage of whites than blacks and Latinos still have broadband access at home, but laptop ownership is now about even for all these groups, after black laptop ownership ...