What is Digital Divide?
Globalization has made the world and its people evolve over the years. One of the effects would be digital divide. This may be recognized as an obvious issue for some time especially in our current state, it’s just that the exact term isn’t well known. To become more familiar, the digital divide refers to the accessibility of people from different areas of the world to ICT (Information Communication Technology) and/or the internet. We all know that the world is vastly improving in technological advancements, however there are still humans who remain with no availability in being able to access these types of resources.
What aspects can be affected because of Digital Divide?
Digital divide was expected to lessen by this era, yet lack of investment in internet resources refrains this from happening. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) says that approximately 45.2% of the world’s households do not have access to the internet as of 2023. According to Kloza from IEEE Connecting the Unconnected Challenge (2023), digital divide is most likely to bring consequences to the following:
1. Educational
Digital gadgets are heavily used nowadays in schools. One of the most notable eras wherein students had to use gadgets was during the COVID-19 pandemic. The outbreak of the disease resulted in lots of institutions closing down, creating a new challenge for everyone as they remain at home, especially students. Schools provided online and modular education, but both modes technically needed gadgets, wherein online learning most needed internet connectivity. Either way, most parents in the Philippines were satisfied with the decision of the government during this era, as they said the closing of schools in order to guarantee the protection and safety of their kids (Agaton and Cueto, 2021).
A lot of children had to drop out or not enroll during the years of the pandemic because their families couldn't sustain the needed technologies their children need for learning. This would unfortunately result in educational gaps and missed opportunities (Taylor, 2023). Also, during the shift of learning, a struggle for users with access to the internet was learning how to use unfamiliar applications. These were usually problems for teachers, students, and parents who are not used to digital media.
2. Economical
The COVID-19 pandemic would once again affect another important sector in terms of digitalization.
Hospitals started to use technology more to keep in touch with patients, and keep track of patients’ information. Telehealth would be the term for online clinical care. However, revealed by Ramsetty and Adams (2020), not all patients could access this new type of health care.
Almost all businesses and companies use devices for certain purposes, such as virtual meetings, promotion through advertisements and websites, and online purchasing. But as expected, with a lot of users unfamiliar or with zero experience with technology, sometimes communication and/or transactions done online are not totally successful. With less experience and/or unavailability of the internet, such businesses can miss out on economic opportunities and decline in competitiveness in the digital market (Muller and Aguiar, 2022).
3. Social
Because of the digital divide, inequality remains a worldwide dilemma. A sad reality we face is that digital access is now considered a factor for people to assume one’s status in society (Lythereatis et. al, 2022; Bartikowski et. al, 2018).
Gender discrimination also occurs online, or digitalization is one of the reasons behind it. Apparently, women are less likely to have access to the Internet. Because of this, women are belittled even more as they lose opportunities to raise their status or position in life (Taylor, 2023). Both men and women face double standards especially in social media regarding their looks and abilities.
1. We should value and make important use of our access to the Internet. The Internet was created for a good cause, and we should do it. Instead of being mean towards others online and using the Internet for inappropriate content, we should use it for better things, such as focusing on ways to help resolve world issues and being updated with the news.
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2. We should explore and learn more about the Internet. The Internet is so relevant nowadays. A lot of tasks are now practiced and may possibly shift to online mode, such as paying bills, filling in forms, and filing tax returns (Vassilakopoulou and Hustad, 2023). The more we learn about how to use the Internet, the more it becomes easier for us to use it and understand its history.
3. We can use the Internet for our own development. There are a lot of online platforms that can help us improve in certain areas like collaboration, productivity, and organization. This can help us so much in our development in life, so using online platforms can really make our lives easier.
What can we do to lessen the impact of Digital Divide?
References
Agaton, C. B., & Cueto, L. J. (2021). Learning at Home: Parents' Lived Experiences on Distance Learning during COVID-19 Pandemic in the Philippines. International Journal of Evaluation and Research in Education, 10(3), 901-911.
Bartikowski, B., Laroche, M., Jamal, A., & Yang, Z. (2018). The type-of-internet-access digital divide and the well-being of ethnic minority and majority consumers: A multi-country investigation. Journal of Business Research, 82, 373-380.
Kloza, B. (2023, February 27). Impact of the digital divide: economic, social, and educational consequences - Connecting the unconnected. Connecting the Unconnected. https://ctu.ieee.org/impact-of-the-digital-divide-economic-social-and-educational-consequences/
Lythreatis, S., Singh, S. K., & El-Kassar, A. N. (2022). The digital divide: A review and future research agenda. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 175, 121359.
Muller, C., & De Vasconcelos Aguiar, J. P. (2023, August 31). What is the digital divide? - internet society. Internet Society. https://www.internetsociety.org/blog/2022/03/what-is-the-digital-divide/
Ramsetty, A., & Adams, C. (2020). Impact of the digital divide in the age of COVID-19. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 27(7), 1147-1148.
Taylor, K. (2023, August 17). The Digital Divide: What It Is, and What's Being Done to Close It. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/the-digital-divide-5116352
Vassilakopoulou, P., & Hustad, E. (2023). Bridging digital divides: A literature review and research agenda for information systems research. Information Systems Frontiers, 25(3), 955-969.