Social Access to the Internet

Abstract

The relative costs and expertise associated with using the Internet, labeled technological and social access, have led to a concern about the rise of a “digital divide” between information haves and have-nots. To address whether and to what extent the Internet has become a medium of the masses and to identify the factors associated with social access to the Internet, I examine Internet use data from two statewide surveys, the Carolina Poll and the Indiana Poll, conducted during spring 1998. Multivariate analysis reveals that income, education, age, and family structure are important social determinants of on-line access and that Internet use is lowest among single mothers, members of lower socioeconomic groups, and older respondents. Although the online population is beginning to diversify, the Internet cannot yet claim a committed, nonelite mass audience. It is argued that the disparities in Internet use portend a looming information gap between those with access and those without.

Causes and Trends of the Digital Divide

“…A general finding is that the development of the digital divide parallels that of economic inequality (e.g. Bucy, 2000;Luke, 2000;Attewell, 2001;Jung et al, 2001;Bonfadelli, 2002;Ekdahl and Trojer, 2002). Part of this discussion revolves around the diametric antipodes of a utopian versus dystopian view, i.e.…”

Internet use and the digital divide in the English longitudinal study of ageing

“…Although a significant part of this debate concerns the wider global dimensions of the digital divide in Internet access and use (Yu 2006), national surveys have found that within national populations, there exist consistent age/ cohort differences (Akhter 2003;Bucy 2000;Chakraburty and Bosman 2005;Chaudhuri et al 2005;Cutler et al 2003;Loges and Jung 2001;Peacock and Künemund 2007;Silver 2001). Most of these reports interpret the lower rates of access to and use of the Internet by older adults as a reflection of the structural 'marginality' of older peopletheir relative poverty, lack of education, greater disability, and exclusion from the work-force-in short ''the crystallisation of existing socioeconomic inequalities…within the older population'' (Peacock and Künemund 2007 pp 191).…”

Senior citizens and Internet technology

“…Another general finding is that the development of the digital divide parallels that of economic inequality (Bucy 2000;DiMaggio et al 2001;Korupp and Szydlik 2005;Korupp 2006). 3 In a typology of Internet users it is suggested that educational level enhances general levels of interest (Mollenkopf and Kaspar 2005).…”