The Digital divide

This week, the Digital Divide, was a topic that provided insights of the digital age I hadn’t thought about previously. Have you ever thought about the way you can access the digital world, compared to the abilities other people around the globe have?

There are three over arching segments that the digital world is split between: social, global, and personal. For a quick overview, the social divide has to do with social construct, including demographics. The global divide has to do with the actual infrastructures, government regulations, and different accessibilities across the globe. Then there is personal choice, which is when people simply don’t want to be online, can’t adapt, and don’t want to bridge the past with the future.

I found this to be extremely interesting, cause-worthy, and just all around peaked my curiosity. I hadn’t realized the extent to which people don’t have access, at the tip of their fingertips, to legitimately anything, like we do in the US. But more than that, people in the US don’t even have equal access. It made me wonder, is the grass greener without the digital influences encrypting our lifestyles?

Well, don’t get me wrong. I’m not one of those “personal choice” people, who simply disregard the powers of the internet. I just wonder…

In a world where everything can be so connective, what would it be like to be unable to connect? I picture: my childhood, essentially. With family time, no social media pressure, playing basketball, chalk on the sidewalks.

But, I think that is a naive interpretation. That was in the days when people didn’t have this access, the powers, and the connectives that the digital era gives us. It wasn't a choice or a construct, it just simply didn’t exist. I think now, when people don’t have this access or these walls are built in their societies, while the rest of the world keeps on clicking, more than just connectivity is missing. News, education, innovations, all of these we find through alerts - and most of those, digital.

I wonder how we bridge these divides. How we provide more access, more devotion to getting more people involved in digital, and knock these barriers down. It isn’t just helping them be more in tune with the current, it’s actually helping the world be more in tune with each other. We need to provide more people with more learnign’s, more education on the benefits of the internet, and more ways they can physically access the internet. I think the long term will thank us.

Hey, Google, let’s take your Broadband Balloons and keep them going. I think innovation is the way we tackle this.