Week 10 What difference to all this might the 'digital divide' make?

What difference to all this might the 'digital divide' make?


a) To socioeconomically related access issues within a society? b) To global access issues across countries and regions? (COMBINED ANSWER)



"The term "digital divide" refers to multi-dimensional inequalities in Internet access and use, ranging from the global level, to nation states, to communities, and to individuals. The divide is here for some time to come. "



It is not so much about access that you have to these technolgies but the benefits you gain from this access. It is also important to understand that there is not just one logical divide to do with new media but many ranging from physical access to political access.



It is a social divide as well as a technological one it relates to who uses the internet, for what purposes and under what circumstances these factors play a crucial role into the effects of socioeconomics.

Culturally this digital divide will depend greatly on economic status those who are, as it were digitally rich or poor and therefore will have access to this digital technology ranging from the computer to television. Due to being either cuturally rich or poor this the alters the need or reason for using the technolgy in the first place. In developed countries such as America or the UK technology will be part of people's jobs and lifestyles whilst it is argued that in developing countries such as Africa digital technology is used to consume rather than to produce.

Socially i believe that socioeconomics will differ from group to group of people and depend naturally on their cultural backgorund. For some groups of people they rely heavily on technology to communicate for instance between one another for various different reasons. Where as another group of people wouldind other ways of communicatinng. Similarly students may vary in their research for assignments some may use the internet for articles and journals wreas other will e more traditional means like going to the library and reading books and old newspaper articles too.It also relates to classrrom activity in some schools computers, televisons and calculors may be accesible whereas in another county/region the accessiblity of thiese resources may differ.

Within society i believe there are various issues which can create more of a divide.
Due to socioeconimics I believe that Prensky's notion of 'digital immigrants and natives' can only relate to those who are of higher socioeconomic status and therefore more likely to be found in developed countries. I believe this is so because 'digital immigrants and natives' are found amongst technology either way whether they are young or old as they have the access for whatever reason they choose.

What do you think??

Some useful URLS

1- http://www.amd.com/us-en/assets/content_type/DownloadableAssets/FINAL_REPORT_CHARTING_DIGI_DIVIDES.pdf





2-http://library.thinkquest.org/05aug/00036/en/text/sindex.html





3-http://www.digitaldivide.org/dd/digitaldivide.html