Digital divide

Digital divide

It is incontrovertible that, from the beginning of 2000 to date, the number of people with internet access has quadrupled to reach half of the world's population (World Bank 2020), indicating that the participation of online users is increasing rapidly and that the world continues to advance in the democratisation of media and technologies.


Source: ECLAC

However, 3.5 billion people have yet to access and benefit from the digital economy, highlighting the fact that access to information and communications remains unequal. This phenomenon is known as the "digital divide".

The digital divide is another manifestation of social inequality, broader than the mere material impossibility of access (high costs or non-existence of infrastructure), which is rooted in the lack of skills or digital literacy to "take greater advantage" of ICTs and integrate into an evolving digital society. Evidence indicates that providing state-of-the-art infrastructure in communities where the divide is in place will not by itself solve the problem of poor digital skills or lead to immediate adoption of such facilities.

We can distinguish the factors that influence the generation of the digital divide:

Access to infrastructure: the difficulty of access to equipment, digital technologies and networks are determining factors in this phenomenon; but so is the quality of the connection in terms of consistency and speed in data transmission: if the production of internet content requires broadband connections to be consumed, users with low-speed connections are excluded (Sorj 2008). Furthermore, the literature observes a permanent creation of the digital divide as a result of the frequent emergence of new technologies that frustrate the efforts of less developed countries to catch up with advanced ones. Research underlines the importance of approaching the digital divide as a dynamic phenomenon with explanatory variables that change their level of significance as technological improvements are introduced in societies.

Access to equipment: Given the existence of ICT infrastructure, income levels and educational attainment are determinants of internet access. While equipment costs have fallen in part as a result of Moore's and Kryder's laws (see fact sheet 12: "Falling cost of digital infrastructure"), they still remain relatively high for large sectors of the population who do not perceive tangible benefits that justify investment in equipment or data packages (still expensive and with low connectivity in their communities).

Skills: Digital literacy is possibly the most critical of all, as its scarcity cannot be solved quickly with short-term investment and is closely linked to people's educational pathways. While the possibility of being online expands people's intellectual and professional horizons, it does not replace the basic competences that must be incorporated in school and on which their effective potential depends. Digital literacy complements book literacy, but where the educational process is deficient, existing inequality is amplified and reproduced in the use of the internet.

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