Digital Natives and Digital Divide

Hello Class,

    In the past weeks, we've covered the concepts of digital native and digital divide. As many of you have pointed out in your blogs, the labeling of digital native is inaccurate since this generation is not homogeneous, and there are many other factors than age that could affect individuals' digital skills (e.g., personal preferences, SES). This labeling could be even dangerous since the assumption that the young generation is all tech-savvy allows us to avoid our responsibility to help them in developing relevant skills.

    We can also think about the digital divide issue in terms of the different levels of digital skills that youth have. As some of you mentioned in our last Flipgrid discussion, digital divide is not only about access to technology itself but also about relevant technological skills individual youth has.

    danah boyd, a partner researcher at Microsoft Research, who has studied youth's use of social media, explains in their book "It's complicated: The social lives of networked teens" how the digital inequality issues have been approached in this society.

    "The politics surrounding the digital divide date back several decades. In the late 1990s, journalists, academics, and governmental agencies began using the term digital divide to describe the gap in access between rich and poor. In its earliest stages of use, the construct referred to a gap in device availability and internet connectivity between the digital “haves and have nots.” Activists and politicians rallied to close the gap in access, primarily focusing on a “devices and conduits” approach that looked to provide digitally underprivileged populations with internet-connected computers. Government agencies viewed technology—and the internet in particular—as playing a critical role in economic opportunities. They wanted to ensure “access to the fundamental tools of the digital economy” as a priority investment for the future of the US economy. 

    As public debates raged over how to address inequality brought about by the digital divide, it soon became clear that access should not be conflated with use. The digital divide soon encompassed discourses surrounding technology skills and media literacy. Scholars and governmental agencies began to argue that access alone mattered little if people didn’t know how to use the tools in front of them. As more youth gained access through schools and public institutions, and as a result of the decline in costs of technology, scholars increasingly raised concern about the unevenness of skills, literacy, and “socially meaningful” access." (p.193, boyd, 2014)

    I hope that what you've learned in this class about the "digital native" debate and the digital divide issues will help you better comprehend your future/current students' varying levels of digital access and skills.

    The full version of boyd's book is available via FSU library (the permalink to the book). If you're interested to know more about what has been discussed regarding these issues, go ahead and check it out!

Reference 

boyd, danah. (2014). It’s complicated: The social lives of networked teens. Yale University Press.