TOPIC 6: The Digital Divide

This is something that hits me pretty hard, but only when I take the time and effort to think about it. Like too many forms of poverty, the digital divide is easy to overlook.

We know that there are plenty of people in our communities who do not have computers at home or access to the internet. That's not a surprise. Those who are homeless, who are struggling to keep their families fed and roof overhead are easy to identify. However, we tend to miss those who are caught in between the status of "have" and "have not."

The digital divide is not a chasm to be bridged. It is a wide ocean separating two extremes, and those who occupy the little islands between where I stand (the solid ground of high speed wireless) and the opposite shore (a technological wasteland) are overlooked. Some of them have smart phones, or they make do with dial-up connections. They might have a cheap laptop and access to a McDonald's or Starbucks where they can get some WiFi, but they are still solidly stuck in the digital divide.

As a nascent information professional, I acutely feel the pain of those suffering from information poverty. I live with a wealth of technology, and my information appetites are rarely left unsatisfied. This was not always the case. For most of my adult life, I suffered with substandard technology, the hand-me-downs of others. I only recently (in the past three or four years), started to purchase my own machines and sign-up for my own broadband access. I know what it is to be "not enough" between the "haves" and "have nots."

...We can do better, but like the other forms of poverty in our world, our culture seems able to ignore those who have very little, those who barely scrape by but are not completely indigent. We're only able to see the extremes. I don't know what to do about that, but I want to find solutions.