The Digital Divide - Blogpost #2

The Digital Divide is increasing as new technologies are on the horizon and the people who were already on the other side of the gap are getting left behind. This gap that was discovered in the 90's, has since gotten bigger as more and more computers, smartphones, tabloids, media sites, and technologies have hit the markets. It came to my attention as I read the article from LiveMint.com.

One quote in the article mentions that "Six Months ago Pinterest wasn't on everyone's radar." This made me realize that even people, like myself, who have access to computers and the internet 24/7, and are knowledgeable in the technologies , are divided from a group of people who are ahead of me in what the "latest" is in the digital world.

Social media and digital literacy are becoming required skills for people seeking jobs in any area of work. Just about every industry has jumped on the social media bandwagon and registered for Facebook and Twitter accounts. They are also using sites like this to find out information about potential employees. It's a huge disadvantage, these days, not to be tech savvy.

As we were asked on our web-publishing exam, what can we do to close the gap in the digital divide? My first response is to make people aware that there is a gap. After reading this article, I realized we need to actually go forth and close the gap by taking action. By offering guidance and courses to those with less knowledge and capability, we can get others caught up with whats going on in the digital world.

It's kind of like those religious people who walk around trying to spread the word of God, but spreading the word of the divide, and how important it is to close it. If we can educate people on whats going on in the digital world, it will start to help educate people in all kinds of ways. For instance, digital literacy can increase skills in reading and writing, and expose people to an infinite amount of information, connecting them with all sorts of people and industries around the globe.

We mentioned multiple ways that closing the divide helps the world, such as economic equality, social equality, social mobility, growth, and national security to name a few. If we make people aware of the positive affects of closing the gaps, there's a possibility that there would be more drive to fix it.


If we can catch people up on digital literacy through tutorials, classes, and such, it will allow us to move forward into figuring out what our society needs, what the next step forward in the digital world should be, and how to improve our position in society.