Question

In your readings for this week, you learned about the digital divide. Indeed, on multiple occasions we hear phrases like "everybody is connected these days" or "everybody is online". However, despite popular beliefs of ubiquitous internet connectivity this is not quite how the real world works. What I want you to do for this week is to think of examples showing the digital divide you are familiar with from your own life, readings, news local experiences, etc. and then comment on them.

Answer 1

The difference in access to technology between countries on the basis of certain demographic factors like income ,race ,age constitute what is known as digital divide.Some examples of digital divide I am familiar with are infrastructure , Education, Devices,defensive computing,information security,cost,blocking etc.Under infrastructure ,we see networks are faster in urban areas than rural areas. Again networks work faster in developed countres than in developing countries.

Under education we see that accessibility to computers in school,use of technology in classrooms may not be available to all students.There are schools where every student possess a laptop and there might be schools where there are no computers.

Defensive computing where in some schools children are trained on internet safety but there may be schools where children are given access to technology without any knowledge about security.

Proper control of divices is provided in information security.There is need to upgrade hardware and software at a cost that often leads to security divide among different people on the basis of income.It may not be possible for individuals to upgrade their computeres which entails lot of money.

It has been seen that people who don't have proper food and shelter, education have internet and mobile phones. Mobile technology benefits even poor countries.However cost of these services may be high and monopolies of telecom services lead to higher cost.

There may be certain areas where internet services may be blocked by  telecom companies or by government censors. People in a nation may have problem in collecting educational information, if the nation blocks an important search engine.