Discuss the concept of “Digital Divide”. How do you think it can be bridged? bshf101

Discuss the concept of “Digital Divide”. How do you think it can be bridged?

A digital divide is an economic inequality between groups, broadly construed, in terms of access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT). The divide inside countries (such as the digital divide in the United States) can refer to inequalities between individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic and other demographic levels, while the Global digital divide designates countries as the units of analysis and examines the divide between developing and developed countries on an international scale.
Conceptualization of the digital divide is often as follows:^[

1. Subjects of connectivity, or who connects: individuals, organizations, enterprises, schools, hospitals, countries, etc.

1. Characteristics of connectivity, or which attributes: demographic and socio-economic variables, such as income, education, age, geographic location, etc.

1. Means of connectivity, or connectivity to what: fixed or mobile, Internet or telephony, digital TV, etc.

1. Intensity of connectivity, or how sophisticated the usage: mere access, retrieval, interactivity, innovative contributions.

1. Purpose of connectivity, or why individuals and their cohorts are (not) connecting: reasons individuals are and are not online and uses of the Internet and ICTs.

To this end there are many charitable and government run organizations that help to shrink the digital divide by providing computers or funding to get computers to individuals or educational institutions. They may address the divide in a specific country that is developing too. However, this can be problematic. In countries with severe poverty, many feel that first efforts should go toward providing clean water, medical care and food as needed instead of giving people technology access. Moreover, in areas that don’t have electricity sources, digital materials can be relatively useless, and some argue trying to end the digital divide in extremely poor countries may not be possible until these countries achieve certain quality of living standards