Comparing internet and mobile phone digital divides

✍ Scribed by Ronald E. Rice; James E. Katz

• Publisher: Wiley (John Wiley & Sons)
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 755 KB
• Volume: 39
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0044-7870
• DOI: 10.1002/meet.1450390110

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

The digital divide – differences in access to and usage of new communication technologies across sociodemographic groups – is a major policy and social issue. While results are fairly consistent on some topics (usage gaps are associated with education, income, and age), there are contradictions in other areas, and differences based on race and gender are largely disappearing. Recent research on the digital divide is almost entirely devoted to the Internet, with little analysis of the mobile phone. The paper summarizes recent research on the extent and distinctions of the Internet (and some mobile phone) digital divide. Analyses of a national representative telephone survey in 2000 considers similarities and differences in three kinds of digital divides for both the Internet and the mobile phone — users and nonusers, users and dropouts, and recent and veteran users. The results show that these three kinds of digital divides are conceptually and empirically different both within and across the Internet and mobile phone media.