Question

Having no internet access can make getting a job and even shopping for a good deal harder. This difference is called the “digital divide”, and is added to the reasons that getting out of poverty is hard. How do you think information technology (internet) has affected social classes? Has it brought the classes closer together, separated them more, or had no effect? Explain how/why.

Answer 1

Let us first iterate the meaning of digital divide.

Digital divide is modern form of inequality of opportunities between two sections of the society, one with access to digital platforms (primarily internet services) and one without them.

To understand its impact on social classes, we should compare the world before the digital revolution paced in the opportunity market. Earlier, it used to take people a lot more time, energy, networking, and resources to access the knowledgebase that currently internet provides as everything was offline.

Internet peneration changed the world for the better for the lower classes of the society to rise in social ladder. It served as a common ground for rich and poor to avail information and use it for the betterment of their future. Its implications are almost all positive with the resources and time it saves.

But, for extremely poor people, it became a concept of digital divide and they couldn't include themselves in the beneficiaries due to their circumstances. This was the foundation for digital divide.

We should primarily focus on improving poor people's access to internet while availing them the knowhow to absorb the information.