Digital Divide

For the past 2 weeks, I have gotten to look into a major problem in our society; Digital Divide. Being we are moving towards a future society that will be fully dependent on technology and internet, it is important that all people in our society know how to use this technology. So schools are starting to move towards implementing all of these newer technologies in their learning techniques in order for students to be experts with the technology by the time they finish grade school and move onto college. This is a great way to get our future generation ready for all the advancements we will be facing in the near future. But our society faces a major challenge that comes with this new technological advancements, and that is it will affect those of our society that are currently struggling with poverty at a major disadvantage. When it comes to people of poverty, it is often the case that most can not afford to pay for internet or buy a computer for home. This is why there is a digital divide that affects our communities throughout the world; it makes it difficult to get our society ready for the future advancements when they cant even afford to keep a computer in their own homes. “We’ve actually widened the divide, not only adversely impacting people of color, but anyone who lacks socio-economic privilege.” (Kim) This digital divide does not just affect those of color but it affects those who are already at a sociological disadvantage; this digital divide is only digging people deeper into that disadvantage because of the way we are moving into the future. These families that are going paycheck to paycheck trying to balance out all of their payments in order to keep a warm meal on the table and their lights on throughout the house, have to decide whether they have an extra cent to save for emergency or to pay for another bill and get some wifi in their house. “They can use those lights to see around their home, yes, but they don’t have the Internet access to see around their world. All of us in this room have the power to step up and to be aware of these ideas.”(Pietrzak) I really liked this quote from Lukas Piertrzak’s TedTalk because it has great meaning to the situation our society currently is facing when it comes to digital divide. Before learning about this weeks material, I did not truly know too much about digital divide and how it is a problem in our community. I knew that there was a lot of people in poverty that are not able to get internet in their homes or afford to buy their children new laptops to use for school work; but I did not realize how much it could affect those children later in their lives; especially the way our society is moving as a whole.

References:

Pietrzak, Lukas. “United We Stand, Disconnected We Fall: Stories from the Digital Divide.” Ted.com, TED Talks, 2020, www.ted.com/talks/lukas_pietrzak_united_we_stand_disconnected_we_fall_stories_from_the_digital_divide. Accessed 20 Feb. 2022.

‌“Getting Woke to the Digital Divide — Youngmoo Kim (Video — 18:20): COMPUTER ETHICS 202121092.” Instructure.com, 2021, wou.instructure.com/courses/7603/pages/getting-woke-to-the-digital-divide-youngmoo-kim-video-18–20?module_item_id=290570. Accessed 20 Feb. 2022.

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