Week 9/10 Digital Divide

Socioeconomically issues through society- The upgrade culture and the technological advancements of society means that more ‘everyday jobs’ are being encouraged to be completed online. An example of this that I’ve found recently was when a friend of mine wanted to try and find out where her lost parcel was. She was encouraged to use the website, the FAQ; the locator etc, when all she wanted to do was to speak to someone. This idea is encouraging of a digital divide; older generations may not have an understanding of how to use the internet, and their ‘immigrant’ characteristics could mean that they would be much more comfortable speaking to someone in real life. The older generations are therefore becoming marginalized in society because they may not have the skills to keep up to date with the technology that is expected of them.

Global access issues across countries and regions- The Digital Divide may also marginalizes people who do not have access to a computer. This is true for E-Learning, and immigrant may need to take an E-Learning course for their job or for an interest but may have problems doing so because of their inability to understand technology. This idea is backed up by the journal that I wrote about in the pervious blog, where it was stated that ‘Results found if you wasn’t technologically experienced then you are less satisfied with E-Learning’ (Chase)This is creating a digital divide between rich and poor countries and suggesting that you are only able to receive the best education if you are subjected to the best technology, if not you are less likely to receive a quality education.

However the idea of the digital divide is criticised by the journal;

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/121528001/HTMLSTART

In this journal it states that older generations using technology has meant an increase in ‘the self-confidence, ability to learn, and memory retention of older persons. Very recent research conducted by Xie (2007) revealed that Internet learning and use by older Chinese makes their lives after retirement more meaningful, and develops their self-evaluations and other people's views of them’ (Xie, 2007) the idea of the digital divide if criticised because this journal argues that this is not necessarily the case.
Older generations as discussed in this journal are able to use the internet for their own benefit, there is no restriction to who can use it and people in this study has found that people are more satisfied than frustrated by the digital divide.