From the 'Digital Divide' to 'Digital Inequality': Studying Internet Use as Penetration Increases

The authors of this paper contend that as Internet penetration increases, students of inequality of access to the new information technologies should shift their attention from the "digital divide" - inequality between "haves" and "have-nots" differentiated by dichotomous measures of access to or use of the new technologies - to digital inequality, by which we refer not just to differences in access, but also to inequality among persons with formal access to the Internet. After reviewing data on Internet penetration, the paper describes five dimensions of digital inequality - in equipment, autonomy of use, skill, social support, and the purposes for which the technology is employed - that deserve additional attention. In each case, hypotheses are developed to guide research, with the goal of developing a testable model of the relationship between individual characteristics, dimensions of inequality, and positive outcomes of technology use. Finally, because the rapidity of organizational as well as technical change means that it is difficult to presume that current patterns of inequality will persist into the future, the authors call on students of digital inequality to study institutional issues in order to understand patterns of inequality as evolving consequences of interactions among firms' strategic choices, consumers' responses, and government policies.Digital divide, Internet, World Wide Web, computer use, social inequality

SOCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE INTERNET

The Internet is a critically important research site for sociologists testing theories of technology diffusion and media effects, particularly because it is a medium uniquely capable of integrating modes of communication and forms of content. Current research tends to focus on the Internet’s implications in five domains: 1) inequality (the “digital divide”); 2) community and social capital; 3) political participation; 4) organizations and other economic institutions; and 5) cultural participation and cultural diversity. A recurrent theme across domains is that the Internet tends to complement rather than displace existing media and patterns of behavior. Thus in each domain, utopian claims and dystopic warnings based on extrapolations from technical possibilities have given way to more nuanced and circumscribed understandings of how Internet use adapts to existing patterns, permits certain innovations, and reinforces particular kinds of change. Moreover, in each domain the ultimate social implications of this new technology depend on economic, legal, and policy decisions that are shaping the Internet as it becomes institutionalized. Sociologists need to study the Internet more actively and, particularly, to synthesize research findings on individual user behavior with macroscopic analyses of institutional and political-economic factors that constrain that behavior.World Wide Web, communications, media, technology

From unequal Access to Differentiated use

Report prepared for the Russell Sage Foundation. Authors are from Princeton University except for Hargittai

Cultural Stratification on the Internet: Five Clusters of Values and Beliefs among Users in Britain

Purpose: This paper identifies patterns of online stratification based on cultural values and beliefs among internet users in Britain. Methodology/approach: Using a nationally representative random sample of respondents from the 2013 Oxford Internet Survey, we identify groups of individuals who share beliefs about the internet. Findings: Each group represents a distinctive cultural perspective on the internet: e-mersives are fully at home in and positive about the digital environment; techno-pragmatists use the internet for instrumental and work-related purposes; the cyber-savvy use all aspects of the internet, but are also primed to be aware of online risks; cyber-moderates are blase´, neither strongly positive nor negative about the internet; and adigitals harbor overwhelmingly negative beliefs and attitudes about the internet. These cultures are largely unrelated to socio-demographic factors, but appear to be shaped by experience online and general dispositions toward learning, and have major implications for patterns of internet use. Social implications: These cultures of the internet are significant because they suggest that stratification online is strongly influenced by cultural values and meaning because they influence social mobility, skill development, and digital choice