Challenges for the next level of digital divide in rural Indonesian communities

Abstract

In recent years, information and communication technology (ICT) has rapidly spread across the globe, along with increased market penetration and easy availability of economical smartphones and cellphones with both wired and nonwired connections to access the Internet; this leapfrogging in the Internet access is true even in the rural areas of the world's developing countries. Indonesia has the largest population of Internet users even though the Internet penetration rate is still under the regional average among Southeast Asian countries. To date, however, scholarly discourse on ICT use in rural communities in developing countries has, for the most part, been limited to the conventional discussion regarding the gap that exists between the “haves” and the “have nots,” often referred to as the digital divide. The current study applies a contemporary conceptualization of digital divide to the case of a rural village in Indonesia with a growing young population to arrive at policy recommendations for using ICT to improve this village as a possible model for other rural communities in developing countries. Semistructured interviews and a questionnaire survey were conducted targeting digital natives, identifying a gap in Internet use between younger and older residents within the digital natives. The study then applied a model that examined a succession of 4 types of access—motivational access, material access, skills access, and usage access—for respondents who were grouped by age and level of Internet use. This analysis combined with an examination of the Internet paradox revealed the positive effects of Internet use on community participation and networking. Analysis also indicated distinctive challenges for each group at multiple stages of the digital divide, leading to policy recommendations for each group to take advantage of Internet technology for future rural development in the case study village and for possible use as a model for other rural areas of developing countries around the world.

Social Interaction of Indonesian Rural Youths in the Internet Age

“…The internet penetration of respondents, portion of internet users towards total samples, was 74.3%. Such a rate is still similar to those of researches conducted in Indonesia a few years ago (see APJII [13] and Onitsuka et al [52]). According to gender, internet penetration in males (80.0%) was higher than that of female (65.3%).…”

“…As a basic dimension, the respondent's demography is listed and presented. The demographic and inherent socio-economic background of people become notable factors when addressing ICT [52] and can be used to control the variables [53] to get more accurate results. In the questionnaire, these variables were asked: gender, age, education level, marital status, involvement as village organizer, and monthly spending (in IDR).…”

“…Education and age still become key factors determining gaps in internet usage (see also Neves et al [27] and Onitsuka et al [52]). People with a younger age had a higher rate of internet penetration compared to older people (r(187) = −0.443, sig.…”

The impact of e‐wallet on informal farm entrepreneurship development in rural Nigeria

“…According to Aker (), one of the advantages of mobile telephony is that instead of being passive recipients of information through television, radio, and newspapers, farmers have the privilege of interaction and access to multiple sources of agribusiness information. Other studies like Kameswari, Kishore, and Gupta (), Aker and Ksoll (), Issahaku, Abu, and Nkegbe (), Onitsuka, Hidayat, and Huang (), Labonne and Chase (), Gwaka (), Abraham (), Gwaka (), and Mittal and Tripathi () have demonstrated a positive relationship between mobile telephony and agricultural development in various areas. The results from these studies emphasized that the introduction of mobile‐enabled agriculture information services have a higher impact in regions, which are poor and are remote from markets.…”

Potensi Tumbuhnya Generasi Internet Dalam Pengembangan Komunikasi Pariwisata Di Kepulauan Seribu Dki Jakarta

“…Apalagi bagi daerah yang tergolong pinggiran seperti pedesaan dan kepulauan, termasuk wilayah Kepulauan Seribu yang terpisah dari daratan Jakarta. Situasi ini dapat menyebabkan kesenjangan digital atau digital divide antara individu, rumah tangga, bisnis, kelompok masyarakat, atau area geografis (Ariyanti, 2013;Ercikan et al, 2018;Safril et al, 2016;Onitsuka et al, 2018).…”