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Determinants of Internet Skills, Uses and Outcomes. A Systematic Review of the Second- and Third-Level Digital Divide
Abstract
Recently, several digital divide scholars suggested that a shift is needed from a focus on binary Internet access (first-level digital divide) and Internet skills and use (second-level digital divide) to a third-level digital divide in which the tangible outcomes of Internet use are highlighted. A plethora of studies have been conducted to identify determinants of digital divides. Unfortunately, there is a lack of consistency in the terminology used. Moreover, terms are often not theoretically grounded. Therefore, we conducted a systematic literature review of digital divide determinants. The results show that the third-level digital divide was underexposed. The primary focus is on Internet use. More importantly, the identified determinants show that digital divide research is largely limited to sociodemographic and socioeconomic determinants.
... o Specific Studies on AI Awareness and Use in Academic Settings: Studies show varying levels of awareness and use of AI among graduate students, with significant gaps in understanding the ethical implications of these technologies. Awareness is often higher in technical fields compared to social sciences, indicating a need for more interdisciplinary education that bridges the gap between technological capabilities and ethical considerations (Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
... Those with a stronger technical background tend to have a more nuanced understanding of AI and its potential impacts. Exposure to technology through practical experiences or internships also shapes their views, as does their personal experience with technology and its implications for privacy and security (Venkatesh et al., 2003;Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
... Comparative studies across different regions and educational settings could provide a more comprehensive understanding of AI's impact on public administration (Venkatesh et al., 2003;Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
... Following a three-level digital divides framework (Aissaoui, 2021;Scheerder et al., 2017;A. J. A. M. Van Deursen & Helsper, 2015)which categorizes digital divides into three types: the access divide, the skills divide, and the outcome divide, we investigated the impact of the three digital divides on rural students' home-based online learning in China, but we substituted the outcome divide with a new absorption divide (see Section 2.3 and 2.4). ...
... The digital divide has been one of the most important topics of concern for public policymakers worldwide, which has been observed in all countries around the world (Rahman & Quaddus, 2012), even in the most developed, such as the United States (Campos-Castillo, 2015;Van Dijk & Hacker, 2003). Academics agree that the digital divide has three levels: access, skills, and outcomes (Aissaoui, 2021;Scheerder et al., 2017;A. J. A. M. Van Deursen & Helsper, 2015). ...
... The three-level digital divide framework of "access-skills-outcome" in the literature (Aissaoui, 2021;Scheerder et al., 2017;A. J. A. M. Van Deursen & Helsper, 2015) has inspired our study. ...
The massive online learning resulting from COVID-19 has exposed the digital divide in urban and rural areas. However, there is little research in such an environment. This study examines the digital divide in large-scale home-based online learning among Chinese university students during the pandemic. Through interviews and questionnaires (N = 3,961), the study analyses the three digital divides that exist between Chinese rural and urban university students. The results show that (1) within the first digital divide, the access divide, despite the positive overall rating, significant gaps existed in Internet quality in terms of urban/rural areas, network cost pressures, and digital device performance; (2) within the second divide, the skills divide, a significant difference existed in Internet proficiency between urban and rural undergraduates; (3) a new divide—the (knowledge) absorption divide we proposed in this study—existed. With more family support, urban students used online learning strategies better than rural students, who had shorter learning time due to more household chores. These factors may result in a gap in knowledge absorption. This new framework (access-skills-absorption-outcome) will complement current models of the digital divide. The findings imply that the public sector should be concerned about the diversity of the digital divide.
... Income, education, employment, attitude, broadband access, and ease of use were all predictors of Internet usage, indicating that both personal/positional and appropriation factors contribute to digital inequalities among seniors engaging actively online. Improving ease of Internet use among seniors may increase usage for a variety of purposes, suggesting that training to bridge the "second-level" digital divide may be a viable strategy (Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
... However, it did not address the impact of digital technology use on real-world outcomes, such as community engagement (third-level digital divide). Future research could explore these social outcomes further (Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
This study examines the digital divide in older adults in a minority-majority urban community. Grounded in resources and appropriation theory, this study predicts that categorical disparities in society produce an unequal distribution of resources and that an unequal distribution of resources leads to unequal Internet use. To investigate the relationships in an older adult sample, personal (ethnicity and gender), positional factors (income, education, employment, and retirement), and appropriation factors (attitude, access, skills, and usage) were included in analyzing data from a community where minority ethnic groups are the majority. Data was collected from older adults in an urban area in the Southern United States. Hispanics' Internet skill levels were higher than the other ethnicities. More positive attitudes, access, skills, and usage were found in wealthier residential locations, higher income, and higher education. The results also underscored the crucial role of attitudinal factors in improving material access, Internet skills, and usage in the minority-majority community.
... To some extent, the ability to use the Internet represents the level of human capital. When individuals demonstrate high Internet application and learning skills, they signal to employers that these women are highly productive and worthy of higher wages [47]. The following research hypothesis is proposed: Hypothesis 3. Internet use increases rural women's income by enhancing capital endowment. ...
... This study delineates three distinct groups: a young group (aged 16-44), a middle-aged group (aged [45][46][47][48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58][59], and an elderly group (aged 60+). Subsequently, subgroup regression analyses are conducted for each group. ...
Although the widespread use of the Internet in rural areas provides new opportunities for economic growth, whether and how rural women benefit from it remains a question. Guided by Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 and its targets, this study examines the impact of Internet use on rural women’s income by using survey data from 1384 rural households in underdeveloped areas of China. The results indicate that Internet use can significantly increase rural women’s income in underdeveloped areas. Additionally, the income effects of Internet use are heterogeneous across the different purposes of Internet use, income levels, individual characteristics, and family characteristics. Further analysis reveals that increasing labor input and enhancing capital endowment are two important channels through which Internet use increases rural women’s income. The results offer further empirical support for policymakers to utilize the Internet to increase rural women’s income and contribute to poverty alleviation in underdeveloped areas.
... Secondly, social-economic and social-demographic factors are common drivers for URD 70,71 . There are correlations between URD and these factors. ...
... Factors such as gender 76 , age 74 , and awareness 65 drive individuals' choices to use ICTs and their proficiency in doing so. Individual motivations and needs for ICTs are also explored 71 . Due to the dynamic nature of digitization, new digital divides may arise at the individual level. ...
... Van Dijk (2020) stated that the digital divide has evolved from initial access disparities (first-level digital divide) to skills gaps (second-level digital divide) and benefit disparities (third-level digital divide) [20]. Scheerder et al. (2017) discovered that digital divide research is shifting from assessing technology access to examining digital skills and usage effectiveness [21]. further developed the digital capital theory, revealing the cumulative interactive relationship between the digital divide and social and human capital [22]. ...
... Van Dijk (2020) stated that the digital divide has evolved from initial access disparities (first-level digital divide) to skills gaps (second-level digital divide) and benefit disparities (third-level digital divide) [20]. Scheerder et al. (2017) discovered that digital divide research is shifting from assessing technology access to examining digital skills and usage effectiveness [21]. further developed the digital capital theory, revealing the cumulative interactive relationship between the digital divide and social and human capital [22]. ...
To promote sustainable rural development and digital transformation and based on 2018 county-level digital rural indices and microdata from the China Family Panel Studies (CFPSs), this study examines how the digital environment impacts the entrepreneurial behavior of rural households. The results of the study were as follows: (1) The optimization of the digital environment significantly increases entrepreneurial possibilities for farmers, indicating that, the higher the digital rural development index, the easier it is for farmers to start their own businesses. (2) As digital village construction progresses, the impacts of digital hard environments on rural household entrepreneurship decrease, while the influence of digital soft environments increases. (3) Mechanism analysis reveals that digital literacy facilitates farmers’ entrepreneurial behavior through the digital environment. Farmers with stronger intentions to participate in commercial activities and information acquisition more actively utilize the digital environment to seek business opportunities and make entrepreneurial decisions. (4) Further analysis reveals an inverted U-shaped relationship between the “second-level digital divide”, represented by digital literacy, and the development of digital villages. (5) To fully implement China’s Digital Rural Strategy, it is crucial to not only establish digital infrastructure but to also enhance farmers’ digital literacy and promote the development of a digital soft environment.
... 4-6 The positive impact of digital technologies on individual and population health will be limited if the unique characteristics, needs, and capabilities of all patient groups are not considered at each phase of the digital healthcare lifecycle, the process used in technology development aligned with quality improvement approaches such as the "Deming Wheel" and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement's (IHI's) model of "Plan, Do, Study, Act." 7-9 Considerations ranging from a lack of patient digital literacy to a lack of broadband access-which is collectively often referred to as the digital divide-may impact the viability (eg, implementation and successful use across different communities) of healthcare solutions that involve digital technologies and tools. [10][11][12] Growing concerns over the digital divide and their impact on the application of healthcare technologies in the United States and across the world has created a demand for an approach to serve as a core framework to intentionally consider equity throughout the lifecycle of digital healthcare solutions. [13][14][15] This systematic approach is essential to consider the unique needs and capabilities (eg, a patient's digital literacy) of all applicable patient groups, as well as social determinants, social risks, and social needs in the built environment, where they live, work, or socialize (eg, a patient's broadband access). ...
... 4-6 Moreover, the existing digital divide may impact the viability of these digital healthcare tools if consideration is not given to the culture, physical environment (eg, home or workplaces), and social context (eg, communities) of digital health technology users the quality of digital healthcare will suffer and digital healthcare equity will be impacted. [10][11][12] The effectiveness of a given digital healthcare solution will also be diminished if developers are not mindful of these factors in creating institutional digital healthcare strategies or in providing funding and remuneration models for clinical providers. 22 To achieve digital healthcare equity, a systematic approach is required to intentionally consider equity throughout the lifecycle of digital healthcare solutions. ...
Objective
To develop an evidence- and consensus-based Digital Healthcare Equity Framework (the Framework) that guides users in intentionally considering equity in healthcare solutions that involve digital technologies.
Materials and Methods
We conducted an environmental scan including a scoping review of the literature and key informant interviews with health equity and digital healthcare technology thought leaders and convened a technical expert panel (TEP).
Results
We grouped similar concepts from the scoping review and key informant interviews, synthesized them into several primary domains and subdomains, and presented the composite list of domains and subdomains to the TEP for their input. From those, we derived the following domains for the Framework: (1) Patient and Community Characteristics, (2) Health System Characteristics, and (3) Health Information Technology Characteristics. We structured the Framework around the following 5 phases of the digital healthcare lifecycle: planning, development, acquisition, implementation/maintenance, and monitoring/improvement/equity assessment.
Discussion
The proposed Framework is designed to specify the aspects that need to be considered in a systematic and intentional approach to ensure digital healthcare solutions improve, and not exacerbate, healthcare inequities.
Conclusion
The proposed Framework serves as a tool to help users and other stakeholders assess whether their healthcare solutions that involve digital technologies are equitable at every phase of the digital healthcare lifecycle.
... The gap between people who can use modern digital technologies and those who cannot or choose not to is referred to as the digital divide [18] and has been researched since the 1990s [19]. A variety of variables contribute to the digital divide, including interpersonal, educational, financial, cultural and linguistic differences, as well as combinations of these factors [20][21][22][23][24]. People who are informationally disadvantaged are victims of the digital divide. ...
... Given the importance of digital participation in the contemporary knowledge society, there is a significant interest in understanding the factors, particularly socio-demographic and socio-economic, that influence the digital divide. The digital divide is typically examined at two levels: the firstlevel digital divide, which refers to disparities in access to digital technologies [30,31], and the second-level digital divide, which involves differences in digital technologies use and relevant digital competences [23,32,33]. While the first-level digital divide remains a major challenge in developing countries [34], recent research suggests that as access disparities decrease, non-physical factors become more prominent [35,36]. ...
a digital environment [2], are seen as critical to the future of work [3] and the transition from voluntary education and training to regular education and employment [4]. In addition, activities formerly performed offline have increasingly moved online [5]. Typical examples include electronic payment systems, e-tickets for public transport, the digitization of public libraries [6], online shopping [7], online entertainment, communication, social interactions [8] and healthcare [9]. On the contrary, the lack of digitally skilled citizens is one of the biggest obstacles to economic growth and development [10]. Citizens who lack digital skills and competences have limited access to knowledge acquisition [11] and tend to be among those of lower socioeconomic status [12]. As a result, digitalization has triggered urgent discussions about access and inclusion [13], bringing it to the forefront of current academic and political discourse.
... Thus, it refers to outcomes of Internet use -and whether individuals can improve their life chances due to its use, addressing questions of social mobility. The findings on the third-level digital divide are scarcer than those on the first-and second-level divide (Scheerder, Deursen, and Van Dijk 2017), partly because outcomes are harder to assess empirically than access, skills, and uses. However, like the first-and second-level digital divide, the third-level digital divide follows existing inequalities in society. ...
... However, systematic assessments of intraorganizational inequalities in AI skills, let alone digital technology skills and uses more broadly, are lacking. General digital inequalities research has differentiated different types of digital skills and how they are unequally distributed in societies (Scheerder, Deursen, and Van Dijk 2017). Van Deursen, Helsper, and Eynon (2016) distinguish five types of digital skills: operational, navigation information, social, creative, and mobile. ...
In recent decades, artificial intelligence (AI) has been increasingly used across domains, from social media platforms to smartphones, chatbots, and dedicated software in business contexts such as finance, marketing, and human resource management. Alongside AI's extensive diffusion, research on the social and ethical implications of AI has prospered, showing both bright and dark sides. An important debate revolves around the inequality implications of AI. Is AI-based technology employed emancipatorily to benefit the disadvantaged, thus resulting in more egalitarian communities and societies? Or does AI primarily favour the well-off, thus increasing existing disparities and creating new ones? Research in communication and sociology has long investigated digital inequalities in the form of unequal access to digital technology, differentiated digital skills and uses, as well as stratified outcomes from technology use between social groups. In this chapter, I will engage with such digital inequalities literature to reflect on the AI-inequalities nexus. Specifically, I will show how digital inequalities literature helps us better understand how AI and social inequalities relate to each other. I will draw on the typology of the three levels of the digital divide and apply this framework to AI. Relying on interdisciplinary literature, I will critically examine the digital inequalities of AI. Throughout the chapter, I adopt a critical stance that draws from emerging interdisciplinary work in critical data studies, surveillance studies, and science and technology studies, highlighting how AI systems are socially shaped to embed norms and values that threaten to exacerbate social inequalities and disadvantage excluded groups.
... The gap between people who can use modern digital technologies and those who cannot or choose not to is referred to as the digital divide [18] and has been researched since the 1990s [19]. A variety of variables contribute to the digital divide, including interpersonal, educational, financial, cultural and linguistic differences, as well as combinations of these factors [20][21][22][23][24]. People who are informationally disadvantaged are victims of the digital divide. ...
... Given the importance of digital participation in the contemporary knowledge society, there is a significant interest in understanding the factors, particularly socio-demographic and socio-economic, that influence the digital divide. The digital divide is typically examined at two levels: the firstlevel digital divide, which refers to disparities in access to digital technologies [30,31], and the second-level digital divide, which involves differences in digital technologies use and relevant digital competences [23,32,33]. While the first-level digital divide remains a major challenge in developing countries [34], recent research suggests that as access disparities decrease, non-physical factors become more prominent [35,36]. ...
The paper presents empirical data on the perceived level of general digital competences of persons with disabilities (PWDs) in Serbia (n = 250) using an established methodology to ensure international comparability. The paper aims to answer the following research questions: What is the perceived level of digital competences of PWDs? What demographic and socioeconomic factors determine PWDs perceptions of digital competences at different levels?. The study followed a quantitative approach. The survey was designed to collect information on the perception of digital competences of PWDs. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including the Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test, Spearman’s correlation coefficient, and binary logistic regression. The results reveal that while a significant proportion of PWDs consider themselves sufficiently competent to perform digital tasks, there are still significant differences, particularly in access to key information and e-services. In addition, key variables such as gender, age, education, employment status, regularity of monthly income and health status were identified as influential factors in the perception of digital competences among PWDs. Finally, men with disabilities of younger age and with walking impairments were found to be several times more likely to consider themselves sufficiently competent to complete tasks independently compared to the other categories of PWDs observed. The findings underscore the urgency of addressing digital inequalities holistically and make the case for targeted digital training and inclusive initiatives that consider gender differences, age and market dynamics.
... The digital divide refers to disparities in access to, capability with, and effective use of information and communication technologies (ICT) among individuals from diverse backgrounds (Vassilakopoulou andHustad 2023, OECD 2001). As a critical societal issue, it has been extensively researched (see reviews by Vassilakopoulou and Hustad (2023), Lythreatis et al. (2022), Scheerder et al. (2017, Riggins and Dewan (2005)), with key references summarized in Appendix Table A1. ...
... Most notably, concerning education-traditionally considered one of the most significant predictors of the digital divide (Autor et al. 1998)-we observe that users with lower educational attainment experience substantially higher relative utility from ChatGPT (α 1 = −0.468). This result contradicts prior research suggesting that higher education correlates with improved outcomes in ICT adoption (Scheerder et al. 2017). By disproportionately benefiting users with lower educational attainment, generative AI has the potential to mitigate the outcome divide stemming from educational disparities. ...
ChatGPT, a large language model providing natural language responses, has become a powerful tool integrated into many people's daily routines. Despite its capabilities, the benefits it provides may not be equally distributed among individuals-a phenomenon referred to as the digital divide. Building upon prior literature, we propose two forms of digital divide in the generative AI adoption process: (i) the learning divide, capturing individuals' heterogeneous abilities to update their perceived utility of ChatGPT; and (ii) the utility divide, representing differences in individuals' actual utility gains per usage from ChatGPT. To evaluate these two divides, we develop a Bayesian learning model that incorporates demographic heterogeneities in both the utility and signal functions. Leveraging a six-month clickstream dataset, we estimate the model and find significant learning and utility divides across various demographic attributes. Surprisingly, lowereducated and non-white individuals derive higher utility gains from ChatGPT but learn about its utility at a slower rate. Furthermore, males, younger individuals, and those with an IT background not only derive higher utility per use from ChatGPT but also learn about its utility more rapidly. Besides, we document a phenomenon termed the belief trap, wherein users underestimate ChatGPT's utility, opt not to use the tool, and consequently lack new experiences to update their perceptions, leading to continued underutilization. We further demonstrate that the learning divide can significantly affect the probability of falling into the belief trap, another form of the digital divide in adoption outcomes (i.e., outcome divide); however, offering training programs can alleviate the belief trap and mitigate the divide.
... Recently, the first two perspectives have been criticized for ignoring the deeper 'consequences' of digital technologies and emphasizing the effectiveness of digital technologies. Focusing on the 'outcome divide' in terms of whether the digital dividend grows and spreads effectively (Scheerder et al., 2017;Vassilakopoulou & Hustad, 2023). ...
... For example, education, economic status (GDP), and social environment (urbanization) are positively related to digital technology diffusion and adoption (Rice & Pearce, 2015). In addition, previous systematic reviews and empirical studies have found that characteristics such as politics, industrial structure, and population distribution affect the regional digital divide (Reggi & Gil-Garcia, 2021;Scheerder et al., 2017). For example, Pick et al. (2015) identified government support, a legal framework, and social openness as key factors in the diffusion of ICT. ...
... There exists a digital divide between groups with a lower and higher SEP. This divide extends to the use of eHealth [18,19]. Factors like poverty or financial strain may limit access to necessary digital devices or stable internet [20]. ...
... Lower income and lower education are associated with lower digital skills levels which can complicate access to and the use of eHealth. Lower health literacy is also associated with these factors, making it more difficult to assess and interpret health information for individual use [19,21,22]. ...
Background
Adoption of standalone eHealth tools is low among persons in lower socioeconomic groups. The preventive integrated eHealth approach combines blended care with an active and personal approach to facilitate access to local care, tailored to the needs of the participant. We describe the four step preventive integrated eHealth approach for individuals with a low socioeconomic position and the realist evaluation protocol of the intervention and implementation. The realist evaluation centers around the question, ‘what works for whom in what circumstances and why’.
Methods
The study population will consist of adult individuals with a low socioeconomic position, who participate in the preventive integrated eHealth approach in one of the participating locations in the Netherlands. The four-step intervention consists of: (1) a proactive invitation of participants by care professionals, (2) the use of an eHealth tool that produces a personalized health report, (3) a personal consultation with a care professional to discuss the personalized health report and set a goal to work on, and (4) active referral to local social and health care. An initial program theory theorized from literature and stakeholder involvement is presented. Qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis with participants (survey at zero, three and twelve months and focus groups at six months) and professionals (interviews at three months) will inform the realist evaluation and serves to test and refine the initial program theory.
Discussion
Our mixed-methods realist evaluation on the effect and implementation of a personal and active blended care approach will elucidate what elements trigger the mechanisms and responses of how individuals with a low socioeconomic position experience the preventive integrated eHealth approach. This will inform the way a preventative health check incorporating eHealth can be used to its full potential for low socioeconomic positioned groups to help close the digital divide and contribute to reduce health disparities.
... Income, along with other personal characteristics, remains a significant factor influencing material access to digital technology. Once individuals have material access to digital technology, the next essential step is acquiring digital skills for effective utilization of the tool, often referred to as "internet skills," "e-skills," or "digital literacy" (Scheerder et al., 2017). These digital skills encompass various categories. ...
... Also, persons with low income are more reluctant (Barzilai-Nahon, 2006) and those with higher income are more likely to use the Internet (Van Der Zeeuw et al., 2019). Similarly, less educated people have less Internet access (Van Dijk, 2005), less digitally competent (Scheerder et al., 2017) and less use (Blank and Groselj, 2014). Also, several studies have shown a positive relationship between social status commitment, and motivation to go digital. ...
Digital inequalities in the agricultural sector have become a prominent concern since the advent of digital technologies. To address these inequalities among farmers, it is essential to gain a comprehensive understanding of their nature and underlying determinants. Drawing upon Van Dijk's theory of resources and appropriation, this study was conducted in Benin, a West African country, involving a sample of 307 smallholder farmers. Structural equation models are used to analyze the data. Firstly, the results reveal that the attitude of farmers is positively associated with their material access to digital technology, which, in turn, fosters the development of their digital skills encompassing both formal and strategic skills. These skills propel the integration of digital technology into agricultural practices. Farmers’ attitudes not only influence their access to digital tools but also significantly shape the development of their skill sets and the effective use of digital technologies in agriculture. Consequently, attitude emerges as an important factor in appropriating digital technology. Furthermore, this study identifies personal characteristics of farmers, including gender, age, income, level of education, and the presence of school-going children in their households, as factors influencing digital inequalities. Policies should foster positive attitudes, enhance digital skills, ensure equitable access, and address gender-specific barriers to reduce digital inequalities among smallholder farmers in agriculture.
... Usar de forma eficiente las TIC es esencial para el desarrollo económico, el bienestar social y la gobernanza (Jamil, 2021). Sin embargo, no todos los miembros de la sociedad abrazan las tecnologías digitales, y la consecuencia de este hecho es la brecha digital (Alva de la Selva, 2015;Scheerder, Deursen y Dijk, 2017). La brecha digital de género en los países en desarrollo se relaciona con características y normas socioculturales que causan desigualdades en el empleo, la educación, la salud, la propiedad de activos, los créditos y la autonomía (Ameen y Willis, 2019;Bimber, 2000;Jayachandran, 2015). ...
... La brecha digital es un fenómeno multidimensional y multifactorial (David y Philips, 2023;Scheerder et al., 2017). Este consta de tres niveles: a) el de la adopción o posesión, que se relaciona con la conectividad y la adquisición de dispositivos; b) el del propósito de uso, que se asocia con las habilidades digitales y con patrones de uso y c) el de los beneficios, que se vincula al aprovechamiento de las tecnologías, que se traduce en resultados individuales o colectivos (Grishchenko, 2020; Robinson et al., 2015). ...
Objetivo: analizar los usos diferenciados del teléfono inteligente entre mujeres y hombres que viven en el sector rural mexicano. Metodología: se estimó un modelo de regresión bivariado para fines laborales, escolares, de capacitación y comerciales, con datos de la Encuesta Nacional sobre Disponibilidad y Uso de Tecnologías de la Información en los Hogares 2022. Resultados: los hallazgos muestran un uso diferenciado por género y mayor diversificación de uso del celular a medida que se tiene mayor nivel de escolaridad y de habilidades digitales. Valor: los fines de uso del teléfono inteligente se asocian con los roles tradicionales de las mujeres y de los hombres en la sociedad, y refuerzan las desigualdades para las mujeres debido a su posición marginada en el espacio público. Limitaciones: el análisis se concentra en la población rural, definida por el Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía como localidades que tienen menos de 2 500 habitantes. Conclusiones: la brecha digital entre hombres y mujeres en el uso del teléfono inteligente está condicionada por la edad, el nivel educativo, el tipo de ocupación y el nivel de habilidades digitales.
... The study of generative AI divide and inequalities was originally referred to in the literature as the "digital inequality". The study of digital inequality is critical because there are many personal,economic,social,and political benefits to users of the Internet in a variety of contexts (Scheerder et al.,2017).It has resulted in unequal access to education,limited economic participation and increased social exclusion,and has exacerbated barriers to access to information,asymmetries in knowledge and imbalances in regional development,affecting the quality of life of individuals and the overall development of society (Coleman and Blumler,2009;Jennings and Zeitner,2003;Kang and Gearhart,2010;Park and Perry,2008;Polat,2005;Purdy,2017;Smith et al.,2009). The natural language interaction capabilities and diverse applications of generative artificial intelligence have made it easier for users and have contributed to widespread empowerment. ...
In the field of education, generative artificial intelligence has a profound impact, mainly reflected in areas such as personalized learning, automated assignment evaluation, content generation, and open educational resources. However, some scholars have begun to discuss whether this technology may lead to new inequalities. Therefore, this study aims to explore how user background affects the performance of generative artificial intelligence technology through empirical research while focusing on the potential educational inequalities that may arise in the era of generative AI. The research found that generative artificial intelligence literacy is correlated with grade level, institutional tier, and academic discipline, with higher-grade students, those from prestigious universities, and those studying Applied Sciences and Natural Sciences demonstrating better performance.
... The concept of the digital divide captures the social and geographical disparities in technology access, usage and their consequential outcomes (Azionya & Nhedzi, 2021;Hohlfeld et al., 2008;Norris, 2000;Scheerder et al., 2017). In particular, this study adapted Hohlfeld et al.'s (2008) theoretical framework, which proposes a three-level model for understanding the digital divide in education. ...
The past two decades have witnessed a surge of distance learning in higher education across the world. Scholars have argued that this is due to the increasing use and recognition of technologies to act as a means, channel and source for internationalization of knowledge. Further, internationalization at a distance (IaD) has seen a rapid increase in universities in Ghana, sub‐Saharan Africa, due to increased use of digital technologies and high demand for foreign education. Yet, there remains limited research about the role of technologies in facilitating and mediating IaD in countries in sub‐Saharan Africa. Moreover, few studies have explored students' experiences in IaD regarding prospects and challenges in Ghana, sub‐Saharan Africa. Therefore, the purpose of this research is to explore students' experiences and voices regarding the role of technologies in facilitating and mediating distance learning including students' critical reflections on the technological shift of IaD in higher education (including the COVID‐19 pandemic period) in Ghana. Data were collected following a qualitative research design via an in‐depth semistructured interview of 28 students (16 females and 12 males) enrolled in IaD learning program in three foreign universities (two in the United Kingdom and one in the United States). Data analyses were done via a constant comparative approach. Findings showed that students experienced enhanced quality of learning through the varied use of technologies such as Zoom, Team and Google Hangouts. However, students faced challenges such as unequal access to technologies, intermittent Internet connections/outages, high cost of tuition and lack of social and teaching engagement. These findings in many ways contribute to a new understanding and knowledge building of students' experiences and challenges of IaD in sub‐Saharan Africa.
Practitioner notes
What is already known about this topic? The number of students in internationalization at a distance (IaD) education programs is increasing alongside the development of digital technologies and the expansion of digital infrastructure.
Increasing demands for higher education in sub‐Saharan Africa have led to an increase in the number of students from Ghana in IaD.
What this paper adds? Ghanaian students in IaD benefited from the use of various digital technologies, improving their engagement and facilitating the acquisition of digital skills.
They faced barriers in accessing digital technologies and Internet connectivity.
Implications for practice and/or policy Pretraining programs and workshops to enhance students' digital skills before starting distance education could be beneficial for Global South students in IaD.
Education provider should support the access to digital technologies and Internet connectivity of Global South students in IaD.
... The use of mobile devices among older adults has steadily increased over the last decades, but a digital divide between younger and older individuals still persists (Pew Research Center 2021;Rathgeb et al. 2021;Schlomann et al. 2020). In addition to this digital inequality of access or non-access (i.e., first level digital divide), digital inequality related to digital skills has been conceptually described as second level digital divide (Scheerder et al. 2017; van Deursen and van Dijk 2019). Since older adults were less able to gain experiences with digital technologies during earlier stages of life (Sackmann and Winkler 2013), their digital skills, i.e., their technology proficiency, may also be lower compared to younger individuals' technology proficiency and the question arises as how to measure this digital inequality related to the second level digital divide. ...
The Mobile Device Proficiency Questionnaire (MDPQ) is a well-established, reliable, and valid instrument to measure basic and advanced mobile device skills among older adults. We offer a German adaptation of the MDPQ and report reliability and validity findings. A controlled translation procedure was applied. The translated scale was tested in two analytical samples with an age range of 50–95 years in 2020 (n = 548) and 2022 (n = 276). To assess reliabilities, internal consistencies and test–retest reliabilities are reported. To assess validity, we analyze the scale in the context of gender, age, and educational differences and its associations with measures of technology use and attitudes towards technology (convergent and divergent validity). The German adaptation of the MDPQ was found to be reliable and valid as the original version. The scale demonstrated an excellent internal consistency in both studies with α = 0.95 (study 2: α = 0.92) and ω = 0.95 (study 2: ω = 0.93). Subscale internal consistencies were all ≥ 0.65. Test–retest reliabilities with measurement waves 2 years apart showed excellent values (MDPQ full scale: rtt = 0.84, p < 0.001). We also found the expected factorial structure of the scale, positive associations with education, mobile device use and technology attitudes, and negative associations with age. Women scored lower than men. The German adaptation of the MDPQ can serve as a useful tool to estimate mobile device skills in older adults in German speaking countries in a reliable and valid way, for example in survey research, research projects, and practice contexts. Translating and implementing the MDPQ in other European countries will help to further strengthen internationally harmonized assessments in technology and aging research.
Supplementary Information
The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10433-024-00834-w.
... Some of the previous review studies focused on the digital divide in all fields or a specific field rather than education (e.g. Acharya, 2017;Aissaoui, 2022;Mubarak, 2015;Scheerder et al., 2017;Soundrapandian, 2020). Other three review studies examined the digital divide in higher education (Khalid & Pedersen, 2016), the digital divide in K-12 in the U.S. (Dolan, 2016) and globally (Ritzhaupt et al., 2020). ...
In this systematic review on the educational digital divide, we examined 77 studies for publication trends, context, research methods, digital divide factors, dimensions and interventions using a multidimensional approach. This review identified factors such as socioeconomic status, gender, geography, age, ethnicity, parent knowledge/educational level, school type and second language influencing digital divide and found gender, geography, and socio-economic status were the most studied. Among multidimensional digital divide dimensions, utilization and access dimensions were most studied compared to cognitive and affective dimensions. Among 17 digital divide sub-dimensions examined, student use, internet access, and hardware access were the most studied. Interventions recommended in research for digital inclusion include providing technology resources; training, instruction and support for teachers, students and parents; and organizational practices.
... Sentencia 12790-2010 Sentencia 12790- (2010. ...
El derecho de acceso a Internet tiene un contenido esencial que debe garantizarse, porque las transgresiones representan también vulneraciones a otros derechos humanos. Determinar el contenido esencial del derecho de acceso a Internet y a la banda ancha es indispensable para evaluar el grado de cumplimiento a este derecho, aun cuando se reconozca que es un concepto abierto y dinámico que depende de la evolución tecnológica y el contexto del país. En primer lugar, nos referimos al concepto de banda ancha, al acceso a Internet y las brechas digitales. Posteriormente, continuamos para desentrañar el contenido esencial del derecho de acceso a internet tanto en su vertiente de obligaciones negativas como en las positivas. En estas analizamos a profundidad las características de disponibilidad, accesibilidad, aceptabilidad y adaptabilidad del derecho de acceso a Internet.
... Consequently, the development of active aging policies is a growing concern among scholars and policymakers (WHO 2024). Internet technology is increasingly vital for older adults to maintain their independence and empowerment (Hur 2016, Stockwell et al. 2020, Scheerder, van Deursen, and van Dijk 2017. In particular, e-commerce, defined as "the process of buying and selling products or services using electronic data transmission via the Internet" (Turban et al. 2015, p.16), has become essential for promoting active aging among older adults globally. ...
... The lower-income household groups are more financially vulnerable to crisis compared to higher-income groups ( Besides, the results show that types and sectoral employment, and types of accommodation ownership have significantly different impacts towards digital well-being. For respondents who are renting a house, digital access could be limited, as the owners may not allow any activity of home refurbishment or refinement; hence, this creates a potential digital divide as argued by Reisdorf & Rhinesmith (2020) and Scheerder et al. (2017). In addition, Zainol et al. (2020) argued that employment offering lower income caused a lack of affordability to purchase digital devices, limiting quality internet access which eventually negatively affected children's online learning. ...
The COVID-19 pandemic and the Movement Control Order (MCO) have had a negative impact on the financial well-being of low-income families in urban areas. The study involved respondents living in the Public Housing Project (PPR) residential areas in Kuala Lumpur – the capital of Malaysia. The key finding is the financial well-being of low-income urban families was negatively impacted due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the MCO implementation. Furthermore, the impact on the financial well-being of low-income urban families is significantly difference in terms of types of family, type & sectoral employment, type of home ownership, household monthly income and education level. Reforms to the financial assistance system and community empowerment of low-income urban families are necessary to increase the community's preparedness and resilience in the face of new shocks in the future.
... This third level of digital divide is known as the digital outcome divide. Precisely, this level of divide is present when the possession of digital skills and Internet use do not lead to beneficial outcomes (Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
Digital technologies may play an important role in helping students from all walks of life to overcome barriers and benefit from teaching and learning. However, due to a lack of knowledge or skills related to educational technologies, K-12 teachers struggle to harness the full potential of digitalisation to support student learning and engagement, causing further marginalization and exclusion that put diverse group of learners at risk of being left behind in education (Chevalère et al., 2021). In response to these research gaps, the aim of this paper is to explore which high school uses of digital technology cater for learners’ needs and preferences for the sake of a more digitally inclusive environment that supports engagement and equitable learning opportunities for all students (Stenman & Pettersson, 2020). We adopted a qualitative approach to attend to the richness and depth in various contexts. We have conducted individual semi-structured interviews with 17 high school teachers, aiming to obtain in-depth qualitative data through open-ended questions. Then, a general inductive data analysis approach was followed to generate preliminary results on the research objectives, which are presented in this study.
... Hargittai (2002) introduces the concept of the 'second-level digital divide,' focusing on digital abilities and skills, rather than mere access to the internet. Many later studies explore the 'third-level digital divide' (Wei et al. 2011), examining the tangible benefits and outcomes of internet connection and digital technology use (Scheerder et al. 2017;Van Deursen & Van Dijk 2014;2019). Van Dijk (2017 proposes a comprehensive framework for understanding 'access' to digital technology, encompassing: (1) motivational access: the desire and intention to use digital technology; (2) physical/material access: availability of devices, internet connectivity, and affordable data plans; (3) skills access: the possession of digital literacy skills and the ability to effectively use digital tools; and (4) usage access: opportunities to access different applications and the frequency and diversity of digital technology use. ...
While Bangladesh has adopted many digital initiatives, the country continues to grapple with widespread digital disparities and social inequalities. Employing semi-structured interviews, this study explores the dynamics of the digital divide and the perceptions and experiences of current ICT learning among undergraduate students in Bangladesh. The findings indicate that, despite the significant impact of the digital divide, caused by multifaceted socioeconomic inequalities, ICT learning has largely failed to provide students with essential digital skills. This research emphasizes the need for an effective learning environment that prioritizes three interconnected dimensions: equal access, resources, and digital literacy education. By examining the interplay between digital divides and the imperative of integrating ICT learning into pedagogical strategies, this study contributes to the field of educational policy and technology. Ultimately, this research advocates a digitally inclusive and student-centered digital learning environment within the resource-constrained context of higher education in Bangladesh.
... К таковым были отнесены профессиональная успешность человека, более высокий статус в обществе, новые возможности для самореализации, активное участие в жизни общества, проявление своей гражданской позиции и др. (Scheerder et al., 2017). ...
Information and communication technologies affect the library performance as a public good, intended to efficient and complete response to the social agenda of various socio-demographic population groups. The digital gap has an impact on a library within the framework of creation conditions for the social well-being of the population. The role of public libraries is increasing in reducing the digital gap, strengthening the material and technical base, technological infrastructure, identifying digitally disadvantaged groups of population that tend to use library computers and broadband Internet more frequently than those who are more advantaged. Attention is paid to digital inclusion which is considered to be the instrument for solving personal, social and professional needs of representatives of various population groups. The effectiveness of digital inclusion largely depends on the professional competencies of library professionals, on their ability to develop programs for library users to help them assess the digital readiness to enter the digital world. The network approach to training library professionals in digital literacy is characterized as the most flexible form that facilitates translation of positive experience to large groups of library specialists. The importance of partnership in promotion the necessity of digital literacy between public libraries with government authorities, universities, research centers and charitable foundations is stressed.
... 67 In both HICs and LMICs, digital literacy has become increasingly crucial for active participation in modern society. 68,69 The lack of digital literacy and exposure to technology in such settings could contribute to hesitancy or resistance towards adopting TR as part of their healthcare. However, openness towards learning and training expressed by our participants were positive. ...
Objectives
To explore the perspectives of people with osteoarthritis (OA) on the use of digital technology into their rehabilitation program, including their awareness, views on accessibility, affordability and willingness to accept digital modalities for rehabilitation delivery.
Methods
A qualitative, descriptive design was conducted. Patients with OA who receive care at a public community rehabilitation centre in the Western Cape, South Africa were eligible to participants. Semi-structured interviewed were conducted and Atlas.ti 23 software was used for thematic analysis.
Results
The findings showed that the participants had limited awareness and exposure to telerehabilitation (TR), along with minimal digital literacy and skills. They were sceptical about the effectiveness of TR and concerned about the inherent lack of physical interactions with health professionals. However, some acknowledged TR's potential benefits for accessibility, convenience, family involvement and long-term community health improvement. Participants were willing to learn more about TR.
Conclusion
Considering the benefits of TR in lower resource settings such as South Africa, investment to increase awareness and patient education and training in TR may assist in enhancing access and quality of care. Resources dedicated to TR and management buy-in in low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) is necessary to facilitate the fit-for-context roll-out of TR.
... Since pre-pandemic research has extensively validated the concepts and hypotheses postulated in the MCSDE (for a review see Helsper, 2021;Petrovčič et al., 2022a;Scheerder et al., 2017), in what follows we provide a review of the literature on how the pandemic has shaped digital disparities among internet users on each of the three digital divide levels. We also examine to what extent the pandemic changed the links between these levels and how social inequalities shape the relationships between the three levels of the digital divides. ...
The further digitization of society during the COVID-19 pandemic had implications for differential internet access and related social and economic outcomes. The pandemic impacted all three levels of the digital divides, as it affected how people accessed the internet, their internet skills and usage patterns. The literature, however, provides only a limited understanding about how these changes are interrelated at different levels of the digital divides. Building on the model of compound and sequential digital exclusion, this study examines the sequential pathways between the three digital divide levels before and during the pandemic, using two datasets obtained through cross-sectional surveys conducted in 2018 and 2022 from representative samples of Slovenian internet users (N 2018 = 814, N 2022 = 802). Path and multi-group analysis results confirmed strong sequential pathways between the three digital divide levels before and during the pandemic, suggesting that despite a significant increase in internet access and breadth of uses, digital inequalities among users continue to persist following the pandemic. Moreover, the interaction effects of age and education on the relationships between the three digital divide levels were found to be almost unchanged, indicating that the pandemic did not affect the role of social inequalities in shaping digital inequalities.
... The third dimension entitled Digital flow in research work is a set of skills attributed to the motivational sphere of increasing research productivity through the use of ICT. According to the theory of J. V.Dijk (Scheerder et al., 2017) relating to increasing the level of digital competence, the motivational aspects are the starting point for effective inclusion, increasing the level of digitization, or increasing efficiency through the use of ICT in professional and private life (Van Laar et al., 2017).In this category, ICT use is linked to the visibility of achieving benefits through the implementation of ICT in the research process (Clark, 2010). The process of satisfaction with the use of new media in conducting quantitative and qualitative research is in realia with having an appropriate level of techno-optimism (Königs, 2022;, which becomes a major motivational factor for experimenting with new software to support research data collection and processing. ...
This article demonstrates the validity and reliability of an instrument to evaluate the level of digital competence of Higher Education (HE) teachers in the use of digital resources in research work. The initial instrument was made up of a total of 22 items classified into four dimensions: (DIM. 1. Digital skills to search for information, manage it, analyze it and communicate results; DIM. 2. Digital ethics in digital research; DIM. 3. Digital flow in research work; DIM. 4. Anxiety towards the use of ICT resources for research). The instrument was applied to a final sample of 1709 teachers from different higher education institutions in Spain, from an initial sample of 1740. Reliability was measured using Cronbach's Alpha and composite reliability. To check the validity of the instrument, the validity of understanding and exploration of dimensionality was analyzed using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), and the instrument was adjusted for the different models using Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA). IBM SPSS V.24 software was used for the AFE and AMOS V.24 software was used for the AFC. The result of the reliability analyzes were adequate and, in relation to construct validity, the results found a good fit of the model, both in internal validity and factorial invariance. The final version of the instrument consists of 12 items.
This report analyses people-centered smart city development globally. It examines six key areas: strategic agendas, policies and regulations, public sector leadership, collaborative ecosystems, urban digital infrastructures, and smart city applications for public services. The report uses both qualitative and quantitative data to assess current practices, challenges, and trends, ultimately offering recommendations for future development. A significant focus is placed on inclusivity, sustainability, and ethical considerations surrounding the use of technology in urban environments. The report also includes numerous case studies illustrating successful and unsuccessful smart city initiatives worldwide.
The digital world is a vital place to connect with others. This study investigates individual differences in experiencing relatedness through new technologies, or “digital relatedness.” The study is grounded in a novel framework that combines social and digital capital and self-determination theory perspectives. We used a three-wave survey conducted from 2021 to 2023 involving 1226 Finnish adults and applied random effects within-between models for data analysis. The results show positive within- and between-person effects of a preference for interacting with artificially intelligent systems (over humans) and the use of smart technology on digital relatedness as well as positive between-person effects of a sense of local community belonging. The positive effect of using smart technology was particularly evident for individuals with a lower or medium level of local community belonging. The results suggest that frequent technology use can enhance digital relatedness, especially for those less connected to their local community.
When digitizing a business, it is essential to understand the objectives set and achieved by management in organizations, as well as the barriers limiting the possibilities for effective implementation. The study aims to identify priority areas, outcomes, and barriers to digitization, using the case of industrial companies. The analysis is based on data from the manufacturing industry in one of Russia’s regions with a well-developed industrial complex. Information was collected through semi-standardized interviews with top management and a questionnaire survey with specialists from functional departments. Data analysis was carried out using descriptive statistics. The main objectives of digitalization include increasing business efficiency, decision-making speed, and work performance. The analysis identified contradictions in the evaluation of the goals and obstacles of digitalization. Compared to employers, employees were more likely to identify software incompatibility and business process shortcomings as barriers. Both employees and employers noted the quality of the workforce as a significant obstacle to digitalization. Another significant outcome of digitalization, in addition to enhancing the speed and accuracy of work, is the reduction in labor input. Organizational reforms and the introduction of digital competence training programs can help reduce barriers and prevent conflicts between employees and employers.
Tanulmányunk három különböző digitális tevékenység – tv-nézés, közösségimédia-használat és információs internetezés – társadalmi mintázatait, és a szubjektív jólléttel való összefüggését vizsgálja két határmenti felnőtt kismintában, Baranya és Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg megyében. A hátrányos helyzetű települések lakosságának vizsgálata lehetővé teszi a digitális kirekesztés dimenzióinak alaposabb elemzését. Továbbá a technológiák gyors és széleskörű terjedésével mind a tudományos diskurzusban, mind a közbeszédben egyre fontosabb kérdéssé vált az, hogy miként befolyásolja a digitális eszközök intenzív használata a jóllétünket. Vizsgálatunkban erre a kérdésre is fókuszáltunk, melyet eddig többnyire gyerek- és fiatal felnőtt mintákon vizsgáltak, jellemzően pszichológiai megközelítéssel. Vizsgálatunk 2020-ban és 2021-ben Baranya és Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg megye egy-egy járásában készített kismintás kérdőíves kutatásának (Siklósi járás: n=386; Záhonyi járás: n=287) adatain alapul. Elemzésünkben hierarchikus ANOVA modelleket alkalmaztunk. Az eredmények azt mutatják, hogy a különböző digitális egyenlőtlenségeket más-más társadalmi dimenziók határozzák meg. A tv-nézés és az információs internetezés esetében elsősorban a státusz szerinti egyenlőtlenségek, a közösségimédia-használatban pedig a generációs különbségek mutatkoznak meg. Eredményeink a digitális médiahasználat és a szubjektív jóllét gyenge kapcsolatára mutatnak rá. A jóllétre a tv-nézésnek nincsen hatása, míg a szakirodalom által kockázatosnak tartott közösségimédia-használat és az információs internetezés is alapvetően inkább kedvezőnek bizonyult az élettel való elégedettség szempontjából. Az egyes tevékenységek azonban eltérő hatásokat mutattak a különböző társadalmi csoportokban. A Siklósi és Záhonyi járás felnőtt lakossága körében alapvetően a strukturális tényezők a meghatározók a jóllét alakulásának szempontjából. A digitális médiahasználat hatásai elsősorban az egyenlőtlenségi dimenziók mentén jelennek meg.
Extant research holds that digital sales channels advance competition and service or goods availability but rarely details the attendant information asymmetry. Leveraging a large unique dataset, this study examines a specific case in which consumers have a choice between offline and digital channels for insurance purchases. We find that digital channels screen in consumers with lower unobserved risk. For term life, endowment and disease insurance products, the average risks of the policies purchased through digital channels were significantly lower than those purchased offline after controlling for all observed risk characteristics. This risk screening effect mainly comes from the inclusion of new low‐risk enrollees. As a consequence, digital channels exhibit lower information asymmetry and greater profitability compared to offline channels.
Digital finance (DIF) is developing rapidly in China, and its popularization has brought new hope for farmers’ income growth. DIF can quickly, proactively, and comprehensively grasp the financial needs of farmers, which is conducive to expanding the scope of inclusive financial services, reducing the threshold for inclusive financial services, and changing their disadvantaged positions in the financial market. With poverty alleviation victory in China, achieving income growth in middle- and low-income rural households will become an essential task for the Chinese government. Promoting income growth in middle- and low-income rural households cannot be achieved without effective support from DIF. We investigate the impact of DIF on the income growth in rural middle- and low-income households by matching the CHFS (China Household Finance Survey) data with the Peking University DIF data in 2019. The study shows that: (1) DIF significantly promotes the income growth of rural middle- and low-income households. (2) DIF significantly impacts rural households’ operational and property income growth. (3) Improving the coverage and depth of DIF can significantly promote income growth in rural middle- and low-income households. (4) Rural households with higher financial and digital literacy are better able to achieve income growth. The above conclusions are robust after fully considering the different methods of measurement as well as interference factors, such as omitted variables and mutual causality. JEL classification: D31, E44, G21
This chapter explores the use of the digital divide in inclusive education through multisensory learning and emerging technologies to bridge the digital divide. The researcher examines the concepts, manifestations, and types of the digital divide in Inclusive Education and proposes the content of indicators to evaluate the digital divide. This chapter uses multi-sensory learning and emerging technologies to improve the digital skills of different groups as an important hand in bridging the technological divide, aiming to address the realities of educational inequity, insufficient depth of participation in Education, and digital exclusion due to the technological divide. The paper also explores the implementation of multisensory learning. The thesis also explores the ethical considerations and challenges of implementing multisensory learning and emerging technologies to bridge the technological divide in Inclusive Education. This chapter is useful in further developing the value implications of digital transformation in Education for Inclusive Education.
The COVID-19 pandemic has caused economic crises and increased inter-regional economic disparities. However, the catalyst effect that the pandemic has had on digitalization may change the traditional pattern of internal migration, in favour of rural areas. Using time-sensitive register data we explain changes in net migration rates of German districts from an economic geography perspective. We show that, since the beginning of the pandemic, rural regions benefited more from migration. In particular, younger and highly skilled individuals increasingly move to rural areas. This confirms that rural regions can benefit from increasing remote work, but these effects differ across region types and individual skill levels.
Social inequality shapes peoples’ chances and strategies to keep informed about current affairs. We study citizens’ news media repertoires – individual patterns of combining selected news media – in a world region of extreme social inequality within and between countries: the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA). We report a secondary analysis of a large-scale survey in seven MENA countries to develop news user typologies. We explore how digital forces shape news media repertoires to determine the influence of social inequality on the population’s information routines regarding current affairs, and investigate the diversity of the inhabitants’ media repertoires.
There is a growing body of literature on the demographic and socioeconomic distinctions between mobile-only and hybrid Internet users and how the two groups use the Internet differently. However, little is known about why people change their type of Internet access and the impact of this change. Relying on data from two waves of a nationally representative survey conducted in China, this study demonstrates that capital-enhancing Internet activities are positively correlated with the likelihood of switching from mobile-only access to hybrid access and negatively correlated with the likelihood of switching from hybrid access to mobile-only access. In addition, those who switch from mobile to hybrid access subsequently strengthen their capital-enhancing uses, thereby not only amplifying the divide between them and others who remain mobile-only but also creating a positive feedback loop. However, non-capital-enhancing uses, such as gaming, are irrelevant to changes in the type of access. It appears that mobile-only access has become a comparable substitute for computer-based Internet in terms of casual activities. However, for “serious” uses, a device divide still exists.
The COVID-19 pandemic has directly or indirectly impacted everyone around the globe. However, the pandemic and its long-term consequences have not been distributed evenly within societies. These disparities have in many cases intensified existing social and economic inequalities such as the uptake of novel digital technologies. This study investigates the influence of the pandemic on the acceptance of virtual reality (VR) hardware within the framework of the technology acceptance model (TAM) and the digital divide/inequality scholarship. A survey was designed to examine the perceived impact of COVID-19 on the potential adoption of VR hardware. Specifically, this study included variables related to perceived ease of using VR hardware (ease of use), perceived usefulness of VR hardware (usefulness), intention to use VR hardware (use intention), and intention to purchase VR hardware (purchase intention). The predictors included two digital divide variables (material access and VR experience) and two other variables (COVID-19 and demographic variables). A total of 298 participants were recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk. The results suggest that the perceived impacts of COVID-19 positively predicted participants’ perceived usefulness of VR hardware as well as their intention to use and purchase VR hardware.
This study aims to investigate the digital divide theory to provide a comparative dimension of internet disparities, and getting meaningful insights on the first (access to internet) and second (skills and utilization) level of digital divides in context of rural Bangladesh. The first-time representative survey of 6500 samples from rural Bangladesh explores the extent of differences in internet access, skills in navigating internet, and utilization of internet. The socio-demographic factors are identified to explain those inequalities using regression approaches. Findings reveal very clear-cut variations in outcomes. More specifically, age, gender, marital status, household size, educational qualification, household’s income and geographical location variables are found to explain the disparity in internet access. Moreover, factors associated with the second level of digital divide measured in terms of web-browsing and information seeking skills also vary within and across the categories though in some way it differs from the first level of digital divide. The internet skills variable is found to be a statistically significant factor in explaining variations in internet utilization.
L’enjeu est de comprendre dans quelle mesure la digitalisation des exploitations peut rééquilibrer la dépendance des agriculteurs à la filière. Les auteures considèrent la théorie de la dépendance aux ressources et examinent si le numérique est associé à la mise en œuvre de stratégies de contrôle permettant une moindre dépendance aux acteurs aval de la filière et la croissance des exploitations. Elles mobilisent les données du Recensement agricole de 2010 et celles de l’enquête structure de 2013. La méthode du Propensity Score matching, couplée à celle des doubles différences, démontre que l’adoption d’outils numériques va de pair avec un renforcement de l’autonomie des exploitants vis-à-vis des acteurs de la filière. Par ailleurs, elle est associée à la croissance de l’intensité salariale des exploitations.
This chapter investigates how technology, particularly generative AI- ChatGPT, can enhance the way students learn in a history classroom. The main objective of the chapter is to detail out a ChatGPT ingrained pedagogical approach to teach the 1947 Partition history of India in secondary classes i.e. 10th–12th class. Thus, emphasizing the role of AI and technology as a complementary resource to the traditional method of teaching in the near future. It will conduct an in-depth analysis of ChatGPT’s ability, to suggest the ways in which it can be effectively utilized to facilitate discussions and critical thinking among the students about the 1947 Partition. The chapter will also analyse the impact that this integration will have on students’ engagement and the understanding of the subject matter. The conclusion will highlight the limitations of the same, and how they can be addressed for future use.
This study clearly sets out how much the extent of the digital divide affects e-government services being adopted by Indonesia. Such inequality in access and competence of nations in digital technology is one of the great stumbling blocks erected in the way of the Indonesian government to carry out various programs. The research methodology in this paper is largely qualitative, with a mixed method of case study and literature review of the relevant online media to facilitate a description of the digital divide that translates into the use or nonuse of digital public services. This research seeks to identify trends and relationships that may bind together policy contexts and the digital divide. The data for this research were collected through the analysis of secondary data from a wide range of data sources, including the Indonesia Digital Literacy Index survey 2022 and BPS data, both from the service provider and the service user. The findings of the research point to a very low level of digital literacy in Indonesia, especially in terms of digital security. Mainly, the digital divide complicates the social exclusion of older generations, yet, in principle, digital technologies can help people in the older generation live better lives. The core argument of this report is that cutting the digital divide requires investment, training, and leadership based on trust from the concerned parties to see there is an open fair access to digital services.
Through a survey with a representative sample of Dutch Internet users, this paper examines compound digital exclusion, that is, whether a person who lacks a particular digital skill also lacks another kind of skill; whether a person who does not engage in a particular way online is also less likely to engage in other ways; and whether a person who does not achieve a certain outcome online is also less likely to achieve another type of outcome. We also tested sequential digital exclusion, whether a lower level of digital skills leads to lower levels of engagement with the Internet resulting in a lower likelihood of an individual achieving tangible outcomes. Both types of digital exclusion are a reality. A certain use can have a strong relation with an outcome in a different domain. Furthermore, those who achieve outcomes in one domain do not necessarily achieve outcomes in another domain. To get a comprehensive picture of the nature of digital exclusion, it is necessary to account for different domains in research.
Digital skills are increasingly important for labour market outcomes and social participation. Do they also matter for academic performance? This paper investigates the effects of digital literacy on educational outcomes by merging data from the Italian National Assessment in secondary schools with an original data-set on performance tests of Internet skills for tenth-grade students. Our identification strategy relies on a rich set of individual, family, school and classroom control variables that are not commonly available in previous studies. The findings indicate that, overall, Internet skills have a positive impact on academic achievement. This effect is stronger for students with low academic performance or low family background. It is also stronger for students in technical or vocational schools.
Past studies have shown positive relationships between use of social network sites (SNSs) and political engagement, but understanding of the mechanisms underlying the relationship is limited because they often did not take into account the diverse affordances of SNSs that can influence participation in different ways. Adopting the O-S-R-O-R (Orientation – Stimulus – Reasoning – Orientation – Response) model of political communication effects, this study examined the roles of Facebook network size, connections with public political actors, use for news, and political expression on political attitudes, protest and participation. Structural equation analyses were conducted based on data from a national sample in Hong Kong, a city state with one of the world’s highest Facebook penetration rates. Results showed that Facebook network size and connections with public political actors exhibit both direct and indirect effects on participation through Facebook news, expression and efficacy. Facebook news exhibited indirect effects primarily though political expression. A discriminant function analysis also showed that age, education, and online news exposure were the most influential variables for distinguishing Facebook users and non-users. Implications of the findings are discussed.
Background
Those who go online regarding their sexual health are potential users of new Internet-based sexual health interventions. Understanding the size and characteristics of this population is important in informing intervention design and delivery.
Objective
We aimed to estimate the prevalence in Britain of recent use of the Internet for key sexual health reasons (for chlamydia testing, human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] testing, sexually transmitted infection [STI] treatment, condoms/contraceptives, and help/advice with one’s sex life) and to identify associated sociodemographic and behavioral factors.
Methods
Complex survey analysis of data from 8926 sexually experienced persons aged 16-44 years in a 2010-2012 probability survey of Britain’s resident population. Prevalence of recent (past year) use of Internet sources for key sexual health reasons was estimated. Factors associated with use of information/support websites were identified using logistic regression to calculate age-adjusted odds ratios (AORs).
ResultsRecent Internet use for chlamydia/HIV testing or STI treatment (combined) was very low (men: 0.31%; women: 0.16%), whereas 2.35% of men and 0.51% of women reported obtaining condoms/contraceptives online. Additionally, 4.49% of men and 4.57% of women reported recent use of information/support websites for advice/help with their sex lives. Prevalence declined with age (men 16-24 years: 7.7%; 35-44 years: 1.84%, P
Research on Internet use typically has been concerned with issues of access or activities people do online. This research has been fruitful, but it has not been fully linked to larger theories of stratification. Although Max Weber says little about technology, his general approach to studying society suggests concepts other than access and demographics will be important. From his perspective, the primary sources of social stratification are class, status, and power. As the Internet has become more important, it has moved to a steadily more central position in the stratification system. Thus, it is important to look at Internet use through a Weberian lens, asking how class, status, and power help explain who participates in what online activities.
Purpose
Research into the explanations of digital inclusion has moved from investigations of skills and usage to tangible outcomes, what we label here as the third-level digital divide. There is a lack of theoretical development about which types of people are most likely to benefit. Understanding how achieving outcomes of internet use is linked to other types of (dis)advantage is one of the most complex aspects of digital inclusion research because very few reliable and valid measures have been developed. In the current study we took a first step toward creating an operational framework for measuring tangible outcomes of internet use and linking these to the inequalities identified by digital divide research.
Methodology/approach
After having proposed a classification for internet outcomes, we assessed these outcomes in a representative sample of the Dutch population.
Findings
Our overall conclusion in relation to the more general relationship between offline resources and third-level digital divides is that the internet remains more beneficial for those with higher social status, not in terms of how extensively they use the technology but in what they achieve as a result of this use for several important domains.
Social implications
When information and services are offered online, the number of potential outcomes the internet has to offer increases. If individuals with higher social status are taking greater offline advantage from digital engagement than their lower status counterparts, existing offline inequalities could potentially be acerbated.
The digital divide was initially defined by socioeconomic variables, mainly the level of family income, but now it focuses on how the Internet is used and is called digital inequality. In the case of universities, recent studies have pointed to the existence of patterns that are dependent on a variety of socioeconomic variables. This article analyses the effect that the level of family income, gender and age of students from five Ecuadorian universities has on Internet use for academic activities and entertainment purposes. In the procedure applied to a sample of 4,697 students, factor analysis was used to reduce the data, and multivariate logistic regression was used to estimate the relationships. The results show that the higher the level of family income, the better the technology use for academic activities. Regarding entertainment, the level of income does not determine the intensity of technology use, though it does determine the types of tool that students use. With reference to gender, men have a greater tendency Je-LKS to use technology for entertainment, but there is no difference between genders when it comes to academic uses.
Integration into the information society implies that information plays an increasingly important role in all sectors of society and holds distinct social and economic benefits. Discourses on the information society are, however, also associated with the digital divide and inequalities in access to and use of information and communication technologies (ICTs). Within sub-Saharan Africa, South Africa is often regarded as one of the most information-integrated societies due to widespread mobile phone ownership, among other things. However, while ICT access has been emphasized, research also points to the role of demographic, socio-economic and cultural factors such as ethnicity, income, education and gender. This article discusses the results of questionnaire surveys conducted by Afrobarometer among probability South African samples in 2008 and 2011. The results indicate that individual Internet use and mobile Internet access were lower than estimated in the literature. Furthermore, gender gaps, as well as considerable gaps between population groups and educational levels, were found in Internet and computer use, mobile ownership and access to mobile Internet and accessing news via the Internet. Conclusions regarding strategies for bridging the digital divide and integrating South Africa into the information society are discussed.
As long as scholars have studied media, issues of access have been of great concern. Recent advancements in digital technology have framed disparities in access within the digital divide research and knowledge gap frameworks. While early digital divide research looked at access, more recent research has focused on how media are used differently across populations. The current research extends this literature by examining media expectancies across ethnic subgroups for a broad range of media (i.e., local newspapers, national newspapers, network television, cable television, radio, magazines, and Internet). Data indicate expectancies differ among African Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics.
Although a number of instruments have been used to measure Internet skills in nationally representative surveys, there are several challenges with the measures available: incompleteness and over-simplification, conceptual ambiguity, and the use of self-reports. Here, we aim to overcome these challenges by developing a set of reliable measures for use in research, practice, and policy evaluations based on a strong conceptual framework. To achieve this goal, we carried out a literature review of skills-related studies to develop the initial Internet skills framework and associated instrument. After the development of this instrument, we used a three-fold approach to test the validity and reliability of the latent skill constructs and the corresponding items. The first step consisted of cognitive interviews held in both the UK and the Netherlands. Based on the cognitive interview results, we made several amendments to the proposed skill items to improve clarity. The second step consisted of a pilot survey of digital skills, both in the UK and in the Netherlands. During the final step, we examined the consistency of the five Internet skill scales and their characteristics when measured in a representative sample survey of Dutch Internet users. The result is a theoretical, empirically and cross-nationally consistent instrument consisting of five types of Internet skills: operational, navigation information, social, creative, and mobile.
This paper explores the inequalities in the Uruguayan education-to-work transition at the light of new technological determinants: the skills needed for critical and autonomous use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) or e-skills. While important cumulative experience exists regarding the increasing diversification of formal education and labor market pathways and its serious consequences for the process of Uruguay's social inequality reproduction, none of them relates to the role of ICTs. The central hypothesis presented here argues that even after controlling the factors traditionally associated with unequal pathways, such as social class, gender, cognitive skills, educational attainment and labor history, there is an additional explanatory component of ICT on occupational attainment at the first stages of education-to-work-transitions. With this objective in mind, nested logistic models were fitted, using a longitudinal survey with a representative panel of a sub-sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests. Findings tend to corroborate the hypothesis, showing a statistically significant effect of digital skills attained until the age of 15/16 on white collar occupational achievements at the age of 19/20. Based on the model's results public policy implications for ICT training are discussed.
This study examines the digital divide between the Jewish majority and Arab minority in Israeli society as manifested by Internet access and patterns of use. The goals of this paper were to examine the digital divide between these two groups and to identify the factors that influence these gaps. The study is based on data from the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics Annual Social Survey, collected in 2011 through face-to-face interviews of 5872 interviewees aged 20-65 years. Jews were found to have an advantage over Arabs in terms of Internet access and in terms of the two types of uses: capital-enhancing and recreational. Our important conclusion is that, theoretically, with background variables being the same, the first-level digital divide between Jews and Arabs can be considered closed; in contrast, the second-level digital divide remains even if human resources in both groups are the same. This gives reason to assume that beyond the impact of human resources, the second-level digital divide between Jews and Arabs originated from their cultural background. Israeli Arabs are a unique minority indigenous group with two affinities - to Israeli modern society (because of citizenship) and to the Arab traditional world (because of their religious and cultural roots). Closing digital gaps requires changes in basic social, economic, and cultural aspects of the Arab sector on the individual level, i.e., personal motivation, as well as on the community level, including collective sociocultural preferences.
Although Internet usage can benefit older people by reducing social isolation, increasing access to services, and improving health and well-being, only a minority are online. Barriers to Internet uptake include attitude and a lack of knowledge and help. We have evaluated volunteer support in helping older people go online. Knowing what value the Internet has been to older people who have just gone online should guide how it is "sold" to those remaining offline.
Objectives of this study are (1) to assess the feasibility of recruiting volunteers aged 50 years and older and supporting them in helping people (ie, beneficiaries) aged 65 years and older go online, (2) to assess the impact of beneficiaries using the Internet on contacts with others, loneliness, and mental health, and (3) to assess the perceived value to beneficiaries of going online.
Beneficiaries received help in using the Internet from 32 volunteers in one of two ways: (1) one-on-one in their own homes, receiving an average of 12 hours of help over eight visits, or (2) in small group sessions, receiving 12 hours of help over six visits. We assessed, at registration and follow-up, the number of contacts with others, using Lubben's 6-item Lubben Social Network Scale (LBNS-6), loneliness, using De Jong Gierveld's 6-item De Jong Gierveld loneliness scale (DJG-6), and mental well-being, using Tennant's Short Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-Being Scale (SWEMWBS). We also assessed how beneficiaries valued going online using a Social Return on Investment (SROI) approach by postal survey.
A total of 144 beneficiaries were recruited with the aim of helping them go online via one-on-one (n=58) or small group (n=86) sessions. Data through to follow-up were available on 76.4% (110/144) of participants. From baseline to follow-up, the number of contacts with others was significantly increased-LBNS-6, mean 13.7 to mean 17.6-loneliness scores were reduced-DJG-6, mean 2.38 to mean 1.80-and mental well-being improved-SWEMWBS, mean 24.06 to mean 24.96. Out of six options, beneficiaries valued better communication with family and friends most and better health care least as a benefit of using the Internet. Out of nine options, having the Internet was valued less than having TV, but more than, for example, having a weekly visit from a cleaner. There were no associations between values placed on Internet use or volunteer help and psychological improvements.
Volunteer help to go online seemed to result in increased social contacts, reduced loneliness, and improved mental well-being and was valued quite highly by beneficiaries. Although the use of the Internet for health care was the least valued, improved social contact can improve health. Contacting family is likely to be the best "selling point" of the Internet for older people.
Background
Baby boomers and older adults, a subset of the population at high risk for chronic disease, social isolation, and poor health outcomes, are increasingly utilizing the Internet and social media (Web 2.0) to locate and evaluate health information. However, among these older populations, little is known about what factors influence their eHealth literacy and use of Web 2.0 for health information.
Objective
The intent of the study was to explore the extent to which sociodemographic, social determinants, and electronic device use influences eHealth literacy and use of Web 2.0 for health information among baby boomers and older adults.
MethodsA random sample of baby boomers and older adults (n=283, mean 67.46 years, SD 9.98) participated in a cross-sectional, telephone survey that included the eHealth literacy scale (eHEALS) and items from the Health Information National Trends Survey (HINTS) assessing electronic device use and use of Web 2.0 for health information. An independent samples t test compared eHealth literacy among users and non-users of Web 2.0 for health information. Multiple linear and logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine associations between sociodemographic, social determinants, and electronic device use on self-reported eHealth literacy and use of Web 2.0 for seeking and sharing health information.
ResultsAlmost 90% of older Web 2.0 users (90/101, 89.1%) reported using popular Web 2.0 websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to find and share health information. Respondents reporting use of Web 2.0 reported greater eHealth literacy (mean 30.38, SD 5.45, n=101) than those who did not use Web 2.0 (mean 28.31, SD 5.79, n=182), t217.60=−2.98, P=.003. Younger age (b=−0.10), more education (b=0.48), and use of more electronic devices (b=1.26) were significantly associated with greater eHealth literacy (R2 =.17, R2adj =.14, F9,229=5.277, P
The diffusion of the Internet is reaching a level between 80% and 90% in Western societies. Yet, while the digital divide is closing for young cohorts, it is still an issue when comparing various generations. This study focuses specifically on the so-called ‘grey divide’, a divide among seniors of age 65+ years. Based on a representative survey in Switzerland (N = 1105), it is found that Internet use is strongly skewed in this age group leading to a partial exclusion of the old seniors (70+). Logistic regression shows that gender differences in usage disappear if controlled for education, income, technical interest, pre-retirement computer use and marital status. Furthermore, the social context appears to have a manifold influence on Internet use. Encouragement by family and friends is a strong predictor for Internet use, and private learning settings are preferred over professional courses. Implications for digital inequality initiatives and further research are discussed.
Rapid advances in technology have provided the potential to connect citizens to their surroundings in unprecedented ways. While many scholars examine different types of efficacy as a predictor of behavior (e.g., internal, external, and political), it is essential to examine how confident citizens feel in their ability to use the technology before understanding how they will use it politically. Research shows that perceived competence increases motivation, which is correlated with behavior. This study examined how traditional measures of efficacy and a new measure affect online political behaviors, concluding that technological efficacy is a reliable construct predicting online news use and expression.
With the development of electronic technology and forms of communication such as the Internet, it has become increasing difficult for parents to identify and mitigate the new risks to which their adolescent children are exposed. In this article, we compare the ways parents and adolescents living in urban areas use the Internet with those of their counterparts who live in rural areas. We based this comparison on data obtained from a survey of Internet use in Taiwan in 2013. The survey included 1079 junior high school students and 688 parents who lived in urban areas and 838 students and 729 parents who lived in rural areas. We found that parents living in rural areas had lower levels of Internet skills and intervened less in their children’s use of the Internet when compared with parents living in urban areas. We also found that, compared with their urban counterparts, adolescents who live in rural areas have lower levels of Internet literacy but a higher frequency of Internet use and they also engage in riskier online behaviours such as online game playing, from which they more often report harmful effects such as the theft of passwords or money. Our multivariate analysis of the data showed that increased levels of adolescents’ online gaming time and lower levels of parental restrictive mediation were associated with higher levels of harm such as the theft of passwords and money stolen online. We also found that lower levels of adolescents’ Internet literacy and lower levels of parental monitoring activity were associated with increases in adolescents’ cyberbullying victimisation. Overall, we found a clear difference between rural and urban parents and adolescents with both rural parents and their children being less experienced and knowledgeable of the risks associated with use of the Internet. Rural children are exposed to more risk and experience more harm.
Purpose
– In today’s aging world online communication is often viewed as a means to enhance social connectivity, and therefore well-being, of older adults. However, previous research on the influence of online communication on social connectivity largely disregards older adults, yields conflicting results and fails to assess the – debatable − causal direction of relationship. The purpose of this paper is to overcome these issues by developing four hypotheses related to who uses what, how, with whom.
Design/methodology/approach
– The authors use a panel data study to test the hypotheses, including 302 older adults. Response rates are between 62 and 75 percent.
Findings
– The authors find, first, that older adults differentiate between social connectivity with other village members, i.e., village connectivity, and connectivity with friends. Second, the impact of online communication varies among these two types of social connectivity. Where e-mail use has a negative impact on village connectivity, it does not affect connectivity with friends. Facebook use on the other hand has a negative impact on connectivity with friends, but not on village connectivity. The negative effects were not found among those older adults that were already well-connected on forehand, indicating a buffer effect.
Practical/implications
– Policy makers’ implementing online communication tools to strengthen social connectivity of older adults, may want to carefully select tools based on the type of connectivity they aim to enhance. Impact needs to be monitored.
Originality/value
– The authors contribute by analyzing how characteristics of online communication tools, i.e., information richness and privacy protection, as well as social connectivity, i.e., geographical proximity and emotional closeness jointly shape older adults’ social connectivity.
Objective:
The purpose of this study was to explore the correlates of online health information-seeking behaviors among Hispanic residents of a low-income urban neighborhood.
Methods:
Data were collected with a community survey from 1045 unique participants at ambulatory care clinics in a largely Hispanic immigrant community in northern Manhattan, New York. A descriptive correlational analysis was conducted using logistic regression.
Results:
A majority of the participants were born outside the United States (85.7%), and half (50.3%) had completed high school. A logistic regression revealed that five independent variables were significantly correlated with online health information-seeking behaviors: age, education, marital status, primary language, and health literacy. Age and Spanish as preferred language were negatively associated with online health information-seeking (OR = 0.93 and 0.50), whereas education and health literacy were positively associated with online health information-seeking (OR = 4.28 and 1.28).
Conclusions:
The findings have implications for designing online health information resources and interventions appropriate for the populations they are likely to reach. Furthermore, the findings highlight the need for special efforts to ensure access to reliable health information for immigrant populations and those with low health literacy.
The Deepening Divide: Inequality in the Information Society explains why the digital divide is still widening and, in advanced high-tech societies, deepening. Taken from an international perspective, the book offers full coverage of the literature and research and a theoretical framework from which to analyze and approach the issue. Where most books on the digital divide only describe and analyze the issue, Jan van Dijk presents 26 policy perspectives and instruments designed to close the divide itself.
This study explores digital equity by examining gender and socioeconomic differences in students’ use of computers at home. It presents research findings of a territory-wide survey of 825 eighth-graders from 36 secondary schools in Hong Kong. Results of MANOVAs and ANOVAs indicate significant socioeconomic and gender effects on the home computing of students, including (1) socioeconomic difference in access and hours of computer use, learning-related use and parental mediation in guidance and (2) gender difference in learning-related use, and parental mediation in guidance and worry. No interaction effect was observed. The research provides empirical evidence that will stimulate discussion on issues regarding digital equity and students’ home computing.
This study explores to what extent youths' perceived influence on their parents' adoption of and learning about digital media is related to digital inequality. Particularly, it investigates whether bottom-up technology transmission is associated with a possible reduction of socioeconomic-, age-, and gender-based digital gaps. Using a dyadic survey conducted in Chile, this study found that youths' perceived influence on their parents' adoption of digital media and their learning processes were associated with reductions of socioeconomic gaps in technology use, particularly regarding computer and Internet use.
This article reports an empirical study on the composition and socio-economic background of social support networks and their moderating role in explaining digital inequalities. It conceptually draws upon and empirically reaffirms Van Dijk’s multiple access model, acknowledging motivational, material, skill and usage divides, while focussing on the under-researched issue of social support as indispensible source of social learning. Besides a small group of self-reliants, the results indicate a pattern of relatively socially disadvantaged domestic support receivers, characterized by lower digital resources. A second social support pattern points to a relatively socially advantaged non-domestic support receivers (i.e. friends/colleagues), high in digital resources. Drawing upon the concept of homophily in social networks, the results indicate a link between offline and online exclusion, perpetuating digital inequalities.
Based on the idea that Internet use can be conceptualized in terms of depth (frequency) and width (differentiated) uses of the Web, this study explored how socio-demographic factors and digital skills are related to frequency and types of Facebook use among young adults. It used a face-to-face representative survey conducted in the three main urban areas of Chile among a sample of 18-to 29-year olds. The results found that men and more educated young people had higher levels of skills, confirming that the so-called ‘digital natives’ are not a monolithic group. They also revealed that digital skills did not predict frequency of Facebook use. Furthermore, lower educated young people tended to use Facebook more frequently. Although these results go against the long-established digital divide research, traditional digital gaps emerged when types of use were analyzed. While more educated and skillful individuals tended to use Facebook for informational and mobilizing purposes, socio-demographic factors and skills did not make a difference in Facebook use for social purposes.
Digital social networks have attracted the attention of a growing number of specialists. The use of digital tools such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to express socio-political demands or to perform protest actions has become a central issue for social science today. However, few studies analyse the factors behind this phenomenon using explanatory models based on analytical sociology and rational action. In this article, we take steps in this direction and study the socio-political use of social networks based on a methodological individualism model. Through an analysis of structural equations, we analyse how the individual and social factors involved in the use of the social networks to ‘do’ politics relate to one another. We conclude that attitudes towards the political possibilities of the Internet constitute an essential factor for this kind of political action.
This study examined the relationship between parental and adolescent eHealth literacy and its impact on online health information seeking. Data were obtained from 1,869 junior high school students and 1,365 parents in Taiwan in 2013. Multivariate analysis results showed that higher levels of parental Internet skill and eHealth literacy were associated with an increase in parental online health information seeking. Parental eHealth literacy, parental active use Internet mediation, adolescent Internet literacy, and health information literacy were all related to adolescent eHealth literacy. Similarly, adolescent Internet/health information literacy, eHealth literacy, and parental active use Internet mediation, and parental online health information seeking were associated with an increase in adolescent online health information seeking. The incorporation of eHealth literacy courses into parenting programs and school education curricula is crucial to promote the eHealth literacy of parents and adolescents.
In this investigation, a multifaceted model of Internet appropriation that encompasses four types of access—
motivational, material, skills, and usage—is tested with a representative sample of the Dutch population. The analysis indicates that while the digital divide policies’ focus has moved to skills and usage access, motivational and material access remain relevant since they are necessary through the entire process of Internet appropriation. Moreover, each type of access has its own ground of determination and they interact ogether to shape digital inequalities. Therefore, digital divide policies should address material, skills, and usage access simultaneously.
Despite the egalitarian rhetoric surrounding online cultural production, profound gender inequalities remain in who contributes to one of the most visited Web sites worldwide, Wikipedia. In analyzing this persistent disparity, previous research has focused on aspects of current contributors and the existing Wikipedia community. We draw on unique panel survey data of young adults with information about both Wikipedia contributors and non-contributors. We examine the role of people's background attributes and Internet skills in participation on the site. We find that the gender gap in editing is exacerbated by a similarly significant Internet skills gap. Our results show that the most likely contributors are high-skilled males and that among low-skilled Internet users no gender gap in Wikipedia contributions exists. Our findings suggest that efforts to understand the gender gap must also take Internet skills into account.
Within the e-campaigning activities of political actors in Germany, the Wahl-O-Mat has emerged as a popular ‘non-party’ online tool which has been used by millions of voters before elections in Germany. An analysis of the users can provide information about the characteristics of people resorting to this and other types of online pre-election tools. Based on an application-specific approach, hypotheses about the users are developed in light of the uses and gratification theory, taking into consideration normative expectations associated with the rise of the Internet. Whether the Wahl-O-Mat helps fulfilling these expectations is analysed by drawing (1) on data generated by an online exit survey of the Wahl-O-Mat users and (2) on datasets of the German Longitudinal Election Study 2009. The findings show that users of the Wahl-O-Mat largely belong to a group of young and politically interested voters who resort primarily to the Internet to collect political information.
In recent years, the Internet has emerged as an alternative information source on mental health problems. Yet, the profile of the typical Internet help seeker is to be determined. Based on data from a household survey of 2558 Beijing residents, the study investigates online information searches and help seeking for mental health problems. Multinomial logistic regressions are estimated for respondents' access to the Internet, and mental-health-related information searches and help seeking on the Internet for the whole community sample and the most psychologically distressed subsample. The study identifies a digital divide in online help seeking for mental health issues based on age, migration and hukou status, and socio-economic factors. Youth and high socio-economic status are significant predictors of Internet access and use. Among the whole community sample, rural-to-urban migrants are less likely to have access to the Internet and search information or seek help online. Among the most psychologically distressed subsample, urban-to-urban migrants are significantly more likely to have access to the Internet and search information or seek help online. Given the shortage of mental health professionals in China, online information dissemination and guided self-help, if properly designed, could offer a means to reach large numbers of individuals in a cost-effective manner.
The purpose of this study was to examine factors predicting lower secondary school students' digital competence and to explore differences between students when it comes to digital competence. Results from a digital competence test and survey in lower secondary school will be presented. It is important to learn more about and investigate what characterizes students' digital competence. A sample of 852 ninth-grade Norwegian students from 38 schools participated in the study. The students answered a 26 item multiple-choice digital competence test and a self-report questionnaire about family background, motivation, and previous grades. Structural equation modeling was used to test a model of the hypothesised relationship between family background, mastery orientation, previous achievements, and digital competence. The results indicate variation in digital competence among the ninth-graders. Further, analyses showed that students' conditions at home, i.e., language integration and cultural capital, together with mastery orientation and academic achievements predict students digital competence. This study indicates that that there is evidence of digital diversity between lower secondary students. It does not seem like the development of digital competence among the students happens automatically. Students' family background and school performance are the most important factors. Therefore, as this study shows, it is necessary to further investigate how schools can identify students' level of competence and to develop plans and actions for how schools can help to try to equalize differences.
Using a nationally representative diverse sample of 10- to 17-year-old youth, this study explores Black youths' Internet use, communication patterns, behavior, and victimization experiences via Internet and cell phone. Findings yielded a number of differences between Black and non-Black youth, with Black youth using the Internet with more intensity and being more likely to gain access via cell phone. Notable within-group differences emerged, including the increased rates of sexual victimization and being sent sexual images via text for girls. With age, participants tend to communicate with more people they met online. In addition, the adolescent developmental task of exploring sexuality becomes more pronounced in the 13 to 15 and 16 to 17 age groups.
This study investigates how differences in the use of online health information and social media affect the use of online health services. We attempt to predict the extent to which the use of social media and online health information prompt individuals to use online health services. We draw upon a combination of sociology and communication studies and integrate relational maintenance assumptions regarding the quality of online social relationships to promote the importance of health empowerment factors –socio-demographic characteristics, internet attitudes and health status models to predict the likelihood of using online health services. The study’s sample consists of 1,406 individuals using the Internet, including 633 individuals using the Internet and social media to look for health information.The study’s results provide evidence that (a) online health information empowers most of the examined individuals to use online health services; (b) among all social media only those that offer consulting have a significant effect on the likelihood of using online health services. The implications of these findings support that that a conceptual integration of CMC and social media use theories along with health empowerment assumptions, is a promising theoretical framework to test the effectiveness of social media use in prompting use of online health services. The practical applications for health management are highlighted as well. Finding practical and affordable ways to support the use of social media and encourage access to online health information and use of online health services could improve health literacy and self-management of health at the individual level and increase the efficiency in the provision of health services at the institutional level.
Social network sites (SNSs) like Myspace and Facebook are now popular online communities with large teenage user populations. Teens use these technologies to interact, play, explore, and learn in significant ways. As scholars become interested in studying these new online communities, I contribute to the emerging conversation by re-examining questions about the digital divide. This study utilizes a nationally representative survey from the Pew Internet & American Life Project to investigate whether access and participation divides persist in teens' use of SNSs. I use binary logistic regression to examine the relationship between social, demographic, and technology variables with youth participation in social network sites. The results suggest that traditional divide indicators such as Internet access or parent education are not significant predictors of SNS use. Youth appear to find a way to get connected. Deeper understanding of the social and cultural factors related to participation in social technologies is needed for youth populations.
In this research we focus on ethnic minorities, one of the underserved groups in Europe. In particular, we address the internet use of Turkish ethnic children, aged 9 to 16,1 in several EU countries. We examine the extent to which they can be considered digitally disadvantaged when compared to the majority population in those countries. We also compare Turkish children living in Turkey to those in the diaspora as well as to the majority children living in those same European countries. The data used for this analysis is part of the EU Kids Online research (www.eukidsonline.net). Of the three groups of teenagers examined, those in the Turkish diaspora take a position in between their native European peers, who are the most fervent surfers on the internet, and the Turkish children living in Turkey, who use the internet least often. Generally speaking that is also true for online competencies and online activities. As far as exposure to online risks is concerned, European majority children are more familiar than the two other groups with receiving sex-related images and messages and with face-to-face meetings with online contacts. By contrast, children in the Turkish diaspora are relatively more familiar with cyberbullying.
Personality traits are considered efficient predictors of offline political participation. However, the effects of personality traits on online political engagement have been largely understudied. The main goal of this cross-sectional research (N = 1134, sample of young adults) was to investigate the relationships between personality traits, as measured by the Big Five Inventory, and online political engagement. As dependent variables, we took three dimensions of online political engagement: e-targeted, e-expressive, and e-news. A latent variables structural equation model showed that personality traits directly and indirectly predict modes of online political engagement via the mediation of political attitudes and the proneness to use Internet. On the whole, we found that people open to experience and extraverts take part in online political actions, whereas agreeable and conscientious tend to avoid them. The findings provide insights on the differences between traditional form (i.e. offline) and the new online modes of political engagement by showing that, to some extent, the latter appeal to different personality profiles. In sum online engagement seems to be marked by a personality divide.
By 2009 four in every five job seekers in Great Britain were making use of the Internet in job search, generally alongside other methods. While the Internet has created new opportunities for job seekers, there are concerns that inequalities in use of and access to the Internet will intensify difficulties experienced by disadvantaged groups in finding work. This paper analyses the incidence and determinants of online job search in Great Britain, using Labour Force Survey data for 2006 to 2009. Use of the Internet increased over this period, with employed job seekers most likely to undertake online job search. A probit model reveals that age and highest qualification are key factors affecting individuals' use of the Internet for job search, with older job seekers and those with lower education levels most likely to 'lose out' in terms of accessing employment opportunities via the Internet. Some significant urban and regional differences