Digitally connected living and quality of life: An analysis of the Gauteng City‐Region, South Africa

Abstract

Access to digitally connected living should support social and economic inclusion and provide opportunities for people to improve their quality of life. Yet evidence linking digital access and quality of life is lacking. We contribute by examining the relationship between quality of life and the extent to which individuals have accessed the Internet and whether they own their devices and connectivity. The dataset covers 27 490 individuals living in the Gauteng City-Region of South Africa. Results show that after controlling for other factors, individuals who are digitally connected exhibit significantly larger scores on quality of life indicators than individuals without access. However, 95% of individuals without access are from households below the median income category, and the odds of access are 9.85 times as large as for above median income than for those below median income. Thus, digitally connected living depends on, and cannot be disentangled from, preexisting opportunities for social and economic inclusion.

The responsibility of social media in times of societal and political manipulation

“…Research on the effects of digitalization seems to prove that pre-existing inequalities are being increased ( Cohen, 2018 , and Didier et al, 2015 ). One of the reasons is money: high quality sources are costly, and who doesn't pay gets free, but often lesser quality or partisan information.…”

Virtual Reality for Neurorehabilitation and Cognitive Enhancement

“…Access to electronic devices and the internet exposes our minds to virtual computer-generated worlds, which greatly impact our daily lives [ 3 , 4 , 5 ]. If exposure to virtual realities is subordinate to achieving long-term personal goals, digital technologies are able to improve the overall well-being of healthy individuals [ 6 , 7 , 8 ]. Furthermore, technologies employing virtual realities may be helpful to older adults suffering from cognitive decline and social isolation [ 9 ], may assist neurorehabilitation of patients with stroke [ 10 ] or traumatic brain injury [ 11 ], and may even be an essential ingredient for the replacement of lost functions through an appropriate brain–computer interface (BCI) that controls robotic devices [ 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ].…”

Exploring the Structural Conditions Shaping Business-to-Consumer Electronic Commerce

“…Inequality: Opportunities to participate in ecommerce depend on, and cannot be disentangled from, pre-existing opportunities for social and economic inclusion [30]. More equal distributions of wealth are conducive to a greater proportion of a population able to participate in e-commerce through access to technology [17].…”