Will the Digital Divide become the Skills Divide?

 

It is certain that the digital divide is a global issue now. The gap of Internet penetration ratio between the developed world and the developing world is great, but in the long run, I believe that the problem that Andrew Chadwick called “skills divide” will be even more serious. 

 Even now, the skill divide has started to pull our society apart. For one thing, some people still use an obsolete dial-up connection, while the others use high-speed connections. Some do just a plain net surfing, while the others do complicated researches. In 2003, the use of the Internet in the United States reached 71%. (UCLA Center for Communication Policy).  Even if it has not reached the saturation point, most people can access the vast information found in cyberspace. It is convenient to think that The United States is overcoming the digital divide issue. Other developing countries will also overcome the digital divide as the cost of the equipment and the provider fees become more affordable, or free. As technologies are advancing, the methods of Internet access are varying, from dial-up to broad band, from LAN to WiFi, from i-Phones to sophisticated computers equipped with high performance processors. As far as accessing cyberspace, all of these equipment technologies enable access equally. But there is a huge gap between them in terms of their capabilities.  This gap creates a new type of problem, the skills divide, the technical and knowledgeable difference among the Internet users.

 I read an interesting article “Cellular phone crowds with no skill” (Nikkei BP 2006 ) about the Japanese Internet environment. Japan’s Internet penetration rate for households in 2004 was 58 percent (International Telecommunication Union).  Yet the statistics published by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications quoted 88%. The reason for  this discrepancy is cellular phone use.  It has been awhile since Internet access from cellular phones has became popular in Japan. A considerable number of people now use cellular phones as their main device to access the Internet. In a survey taken in 2003, the percentage of those who used cellular phones as the only access device was 12%.  The article argued that an economical bipolarization trend has been advancing in Japanese society, and this bipolarization expedites the phenomena of staying away from computers.

In the new millennium, a stratum called the “new impoverished” has emerged in Japanese society. This stratum mainly consists of retired elders and uneducated youth with the annual income of less than 30,000 dollars. Their main use of the Internet [was] is web surfing and e-mailing, and they use their cellular phones exclusively, rather than paying ISP fees. A cellular phone with a relatively good resolution screen (800*480) covers Yahoo’s main page that has the width of 800 dots. It is enough for the basic net surfing, watching YouTube clips, sending e-mails, and playing with social network services. As a result, they never have the occasion to be familiar with the basic business software, such as Word and Excel.

According to the article, this demographic population has very poor computer skills, and that puts them into a vicious cycle where their low income limits access to higher computer skills which causes a limiting of their job opportunities. It is ironic that Japanese cellular phone technology is obviously reinforcing the skills divide in Japan. As Chadwick mentioned, one huge difference between TV and Internet is that the skill level of the user drastically affects its accomplishment. Availability of less expensive, easy to use devices can possibly boost the skill divide issue. I think it is very likely to happen in the future, especially in the developing countries such as the ones in Africa, who need to rely on wireless infrastructure.

As the technologies surrounding the internet are advancing and becoming more sophisticated, the digital divide will turn into a skill divide and linger much longer.