From the Community Blog: America’s Digital Divide
- Posted by: GOOD
- on April 10, 2009 at 8:05 pm
This week in GOOD’s community blog, willcoley points us to Internet for Everyone, a campaign to get internet access to those on the disconnected side of America’s digital divide. He says:
“While I’m a big fan of social media (like this blog) and its potential for social change, I think we often forget that not everyone is at the cyber-table. I’ve been thinking a lot about collaborative offline content development (i.e. video) where everyone can participate. But free internet access would definitely make these online ’social tools’ much more effective and amplify its use for social good.”
The chart above (from this IFE video), shows how broadband penetration differs by income level. It also differs by race and geography. With the exception of Asians, broadband access is rarer among minorities. It’s also rarer in rural areas.
And it’s not just funny cat videos that these people are missing out on. If people on the lower end of the socioeconomic spectrum don’t have internet access they have a harder time doing research for school, finding jobs, participating in social or political action online (as Will notes), or simply staying informed. This ends up denying them a fair shot at employment and education opportunities, weakening our democracy, solidifying the current social order, and thwarting the American ideal of upward mobility.
You can learn more and contribute to the cause at Internet for Everyone. Thanks for the tip, Will.
DISCUSSION: 5 Comments
This is crazy! I never really thought of who has and doesn’t have internet like this before. The percentages are practically off the charts.
The article, “The Digital Divide,” explains how internet access is denied to people depending on their income levels. It is expensive to get a computer and to pay monthly access fees. For years, I didn’t have a computer either. Recently, I acquired a computer from my mother who lives in Florida as a gift because she is seventy-five years old and didn’t know how to use it. Not to mention it, if she still lived up here in Virginia I would have shown her how to use it. My nephew brought it to me when he went to visit her and help her out. My nephew and I both live in Virginia. However, he wasn’t able to bring the computer monitor up here because it was large and bulky and was afraid it would bounce around in the car. He was able to find another one that was used from this thrift store where he paid only $15 for it and I reimbursed him. I’ve had the computer monitor now for at least eight months and it is still going strong. Who knows, it could be almost brand new if someone had decided to ditch it for a smaller, lightweight and more compact laptop. Also, Verizon had a special in December where you could get high speed internet for only $9.99 a month! Well, I decided it was time to stop using my computer for only Microsoft word documents and get the internet. Now I have the internet of my own and can do a lot more activities on it then if I were to continue to “borrow” the one I have at work. Also, there were a lot of things I wouldn’t have been allowed to use it for at work besides not being able to use it unless it was work related. And with my own home computer, I don’t have “BIG BROTHER” watching my every move. I’m referring to the people who work upstairs monitoring the main frame.
Let’s translate this to those who don’t live in North America. Analog Blogger is an example of how mobile phone technology might be a an additional direction to consider in giving access to people. I agree that so much information is on the internet now and access does make a difference to information exchange among other things. Add in the cost of a computer and it’s more than just an internet issue. I hope we can make it more cost efficient and mobile for everyone too!
I live in a rocky, rural state (Maine), and there are entire areas where high-speed access is literally not available. It’s not that people don’t want it! It just can’t be obtained at any price. Many people are still on dialup as a result, and some people have to use satellite (which is apparently very slow for certain things).
Very nice site!