Week 10: Question 2

What difference to all this might the 'digital divide' make? a) To socioeconomically related access issues within a society?

Digital divide is a term used to explain the ‘gap’ between people who access and benefit from digital technology and those who do not. England is planning for the ‘digital switchover’ on 2012 by enticing all household to get a digital receiver in their households to access digital radio and television channels etc before the analogue channels are switched off for good. This is hard for some generations as they cannot understand the concept of the digital switchover and cannot grasp the ideas of this new digital age. Presnky’s idea of digital immigrants can be implied here as the main number of people who cannot understand this new concept of digitalisation are of a different generation to the digital natives. This results in the being able to grasp and understand these new digital ways and ideas.

The economic crisis also has to be mentioned here. With the so called ‘credit crunch’, job loss and the decline in the economy the digital audience can be affected. People with lower incomes or that now have no jobs are unable to afford digital appliances to allow them to continue developing at the same speed as society. There is also the idea an amount of people who are unable to access digital facilities. As I mentioned in a previous post a few weeks Gordon Brown wants all households to have access to a computer with the internet and most to have digital boxes within the next few years to prepare for the digital takeover.

However many poorer places will still be unable to reach some areas. If they’re not careful the digital divide could get bigger rather than smaller. More needs to be done in the poorer areas of society. If not they will result in being left behind and will remain immigrants in a continuously developing society. Education must be mentioned here also. If families cannot afford to buy new digital appliances then their children will be unable to access a computer or the internet from their homes. This is ironic as these children are supposed to be digitally native to this new digital technology but instead are unable to be native due to their poorer background in society. The only way in which these children will be able to access digital facilities will be in schools, although they still might have limited time and access to it.

It is clear that digital technology is running at fast past and there seems to be no signs of it slowing down. The government are trying their best to close the gap on the digital divide but are now struggling due to problems in the economy. This year I think you can expect to see a lot more involvement from the government trying to engage all areas of the country into digitalisation.