Marius Popa

12 E

8th November 2010

The Digital Divide

What is the Digital Divide: The digital divide refers to the gap between different countries, which have varying a access to technology, limited access to no access at all. The digital divide is mainly due to the countries which are less developed, for example Africa, another digital divide is due to the older generation which are not interested into learning about the new technology, or are not able to, this can create a divide between generations. In terms of different services provided by companies, they upgrade their technology and the older people are left behind due to the fact that they cannot access technology, e.g. over the internet. When companies upgrade their software and technology do not think about the affect on the age of people. There are three types of digital divide: on a global scale, cities and local areas.

Factors creating the Digital Divide:

Economic Digital Divide can also be seen in the employment and economic competitiveness. This affects people which are able to get new jobs and pay there taxes, taking this into consideration age groups which are largely affected by this divide are people between the ages of 16 to 65. In most of the developed countries jobs that are available are for people, which have computer skills, this is because the employer wants to spend as less money as possible in training the employee. In United Kingdom 90% of the jobs require computer skills and globally like the United States 60 % of the jobs require it skills. This divide is made in local, national and global areas of the
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countries due to the low income made people. Companies can only develop largely and quickly by the Internet so people do not have Internet access they could without knowing, make companies bankrupt. The problem, which this digital divide creates, is that most job opportunities are available for the younger generation which are more competitive and know how to use the minimum asked of them . Like I said above employers would not even take a second look at people that do not have the required skills since it cuts into their profit margin. On the global scale, companies have tried to stop the digital divide in the early 90s but due to the empowerment of the government and also due to financial reasons the idea was scratched and not applied. Social The digital divide has a large impact on the social life. Most people who use the Internet are between the ages of 15-26 that leaves the older generation like the plus 50 that only a small minority uses the Internet and computers. This leaves a massive gap between the two generations. The older generation could find technology like computers quite frightening due to the bad media in the newspaper and television news, also they might be intimidated on how to use it since all of the older generation did not have any of these facilities. Most companies do not take interest in designing the new facility for the older generation due to the low interest of the older generation. Even younger generations that are the right age might find the new technology harder due to money issues and the raising prices. Most average paid families cannot afford a computer for the youngsters in the family. This could have a large effect in their education. People like the examples above would miss out in the facilities that the Internet provides, service like newspaper articles free that are updated with each major news, and other facilities like these. Also most banks are thinking in cutting some of the advisors and designing websites and bank accounts that can be accessed at a click of a button. Personal computers also provide leisure activities like a game, which relaxes people and takes away the personal issues for a few minutes or hours. On a global scale people could miss out from free services that let people communicate over the Internet and even see each other from different countries. These services could let people become more relaxed and worried about the friends or relatives. Another important thing that Internet provides is job opportunities and information. The extent of the divide is everywhere and it is also increasing with facilities like the public library where funds from the government are being cut even more due to the economic status of the world. The opportunity of using computers cheaper than buying it is even less for people in need. This is going to the extent that people cannot participate in the voting online, or other tasks like keeping up with the bank accounts and the bills coming. Educational The digital divide has a lot of affects on education of young people and even adults. Some schools with low income budgets cannot provide computers for the children, having facilities like this can make a teachers work easier because of use of whiteboards. These simple facilities are crucial in schools, one of them could be learning how to spell certain words, and Microsoft Word provides this. There are also other programs, which can increase the abilities of children in fun ways of learning. Wide ranges of students do not

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have access to the internet (computer) at home. The Internet is a crucial resource since anything can be found on the Internet. Low-income households unfortunately make students less able since they do not have the skills of the students in richer families. Jobs now day are mostly based on computers so in every job available people need computing skills, if people which did not have access to a computer it would be harder for them to get the job due to the employer which does not want to spend money in training them. It also has a large impact on the adults since more and more use educational websites like (www.learndirect.com) to advance in certain jobs, so if there is no access, there is no increase so the economy of the country is not increased. In local and national cases (in the UK) most libraries are well developed and also most households have access to at least on computer. Schools have access to a wide range of computers, up to even 100, and also there are whiteboards that enhance the education of students since the teacher has more time in explaining crucial information. In global cases wealthier countries are able to afford computerized education compared to poor countries like in the third world. This obviously implies that wealthier countries have a head start when it comes to education, which could lead into no competition by the less able territories. While developed worlds technology increases, the less develop are not able to catch up. But one of the richer countries has put the digital divide to the side by a program called e-rate, which basically a program that gives students households discounts for telecommunications. Cultural The countries that people live in make the digital divide in the cultural part. Even thought some countries are not poor and have accessed to the Internet, government limit the access of the population due to cultural issues. One country that has done this is China, even though they have not blocked the Internet completely, they have blocked the access to the largest search engine on the Internet www.google.com. This is not the only country which has blocked the internet, North Korea does not allow access to the internet because the government is communist and they want people to live a simple life. There are also other countries like Singapore, Saudi Arabia etc. These countries are worried of the influence that it might have on the populations religion and cultural beliefs. By blocking the internet access, or some access students in that country might have problems in developing their learning, and also probably more time would be spend in researching in books and other non-web modalities. It could also stop people into having their own beliefs and opinions; they are shut from the rest of the world.

The extent of the divide and measures taken It is widening or narrowing? The western world countries do not have a lot of problems when it comes to the digital divide due to the large infrastructure and wealth. Most problems are in the less developed countries like Ghana, India etc. They might have a large problem in keeping up with the rest of the world, and probably will never be able to reach the same standard. The digital divide is widening on the global scale due to companies which invest only in developed countries because there they would make the larges profit, hose companies are more
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interested in the profits they will make, rather than helping the rest of the less developed countries. On the local scale the digital divide is narrowing even further due to the facilities available and the small, affordable prices. There is a large range between the rural areas which have internet access only 15% compared to the town areas where the access to broadband is rising to over 90%. An example that I have also put in my video is that countries like Africa where the dial up Internet is so expensive, 60 dollars which is the average African salary, while in the United States the price for Internet is only 20 dollars. How can the gap be reduced? The gap of the digital varies in the UK in different parts of the country. In less developed areas the UK government are funding schools and collages to give the right facilities to the students. Also libraries are kept up to date with the technology by the government. When it comes to communications, mobile or fixed landlines, more and more businesses develop so more and more accessible offers are provided by business for their costumers. This reduces the gap and make the country more even in the digital divide. On the global scale the great eight (Japan, United Kingdom, Germany, USA, Canada, Russia, France and Italy) would have to work together in order to make companies invest in less developed countries where it could not make as larger profit, but it would give the rest of the world more chance in having a great source of information and entertainment. One way in reducing the divide is to make companies like Sony to produce very low price laptops for students in less developed countries. I know of some associations like OLPC (One laptop per child), Eduvision, Geekcorps etc. which provide laptops to less fortunate families and give them a chance in succeeding. Benefits of reducing the gap On the global level the gap should be reduced just to give everyone the same chance of having a good knowledge. This branching could provide the countries with more e-commerce; this could increase the economy of the country and let it develop even more. The most important benefit of educing the digital divide between countries is that it improves the business trade between countries even though some countries could take advantage and provide things more expensive for different countries. Internet also increases the researching skills and also knowledge so countries developed intellectually and could have new ideas of different topics like how to reduce the global warming and other topics.

Marius Popa

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8th November 2010

One benefit of reducing the digital divide in the UK is to raise the life standards; it could reduce poverty since online websites like www.learndirect.com is made for the population to increase the job standards and the household wages. It also gives more job opportunities for the younger generation because they are more able and have more skills then other competitors, so it raises the competition. Online websites also give the population freedom of speech and are allowed to follow their own beliefs, unlike some countries that block this access. All of these benefits increase the wealth of the country even more. Drawbacks of reducing the gap There are a few minor drawbacks in reducing the countries drawbacks. I will give the drawbacks for the global environment, because there are no drawbacks into reducing the gap in the UK. Other countries and block Internet access for the population for certain websites could influence governments. Computers are very costly and they have to be maintained so this uses a lot of money. Another drawback is that it would take a large financial support to reduce the gap and in the economic status in which the countries are now, it would never happen. I think the most important drawback in reducing the gap is that wealthier countries cannot take advantage of poorer countries that work on low wages compared to other western countries. If they would reduce the gap employees will become more skilled and stop working on the low amount of money.

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