Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ The Digital Divide in How We Use the Internet

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

We're familiar with the digital divide defined in terms of access, but Irving Wladawsky-Berger, citing Esteban Moro, argues that there's a second digital divide, this one defined by how we use the internet. In a nutshell, for higher income and education demographics, information-seeking traffic predominates, while for lower income & education demographics, entertainment traffic predominates. According to the paper, "The digital usage gap is so profound between low- and high-income or low- or high-education areas that it can be used to clearly distinguish between them or even identify the relative composition of these groups in a given area." I would be wary of deducing economic status and demographics from something as variable as internet use.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
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Last Updated: Apr 25, 2024 3:30 p.m.

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