The Digital Divide and Cultural Significance
The Digital Divide and Cultural Significance by Dennis L. Wignall, Ph.D.U.S. Government officials and social researchers have long been studying the phenomenon labeled ?The Digital Divide? (DD). The DD is defined as the distance between those people who possess functional computing skills in support of internet access, and those people who do not. The predominate factors limiting the acquisition and/or development of computing skills and subsequent internet access are generally identified as income level, ethnicity, and/or geography. The goal of this essay is to explore the current manifestations of the DD, their impact on American society and societies in general, the steps being taken to close the DD in America, and why other cultures may wish to study these steps. In addition, potential technological developments and their consequences to global populations will be explored.The first point of importance to be addressed is the nature and existence of the DD. Early in the 1990?s the National Telecommunication and Information Agency (NTIA) made public the first of three successive reports based on data derived from the U.S. Census Bureau. Although this report was originally designed to review the usage of telephones, d
? Yet, I envision a computing setting that makes use of both the visual and acoustic, a format composed of both graphics and oral interchange between respondents. Illiteracy, by definition, is an oral-primal state marked by the absence of any technology supportive of reading, writing (chirography, typography). The presence of the technology and its speed, as well as other attributes, encourages these externalization demands on the human user. One must ?get up to speed? before entering. There may eventually be some problems. who do not wish to become computer literate in any fashion whatsoever. ata was collected that reflected computer usage as well. A culture, whose predominant resource is information, is then driven solely by various information agencies and agents. The interface between the computer and the human user is primarily the keyboard and this device provides access to a graphic and textual environment. Anyone who can speak does so much faster than they can type and read. At that point, one might assume that literacy, as currently defined as the ability to read and write, becomes moot. Current skill development demands, while certainly necessary, are frequently tedious, time consuming, and typically ?over taught. Each channel (acoustic and visual) will be nested within the other. Yet, as a state, literacy changes only slightly over time. In an oral plus graphic environment, ideas arrive in something akin to tsunami and the danger then becomes how to manage this complex and changing kaleidescope of information into meaningful knowledge.
Common topics in this essay:
Digital Divide,
Western Europe,
BBS IRC,
Wide Web,
Moores Law,
Currently DD,
DD DD,
DD America,
Census Bureau,
PhD Government,
digital divide,
skill development,
read write,
pieces information,
supportive technologies,
literate illiterate,
involved computing internet,
literate illiterate comparison,
information exchange,
variety reasons,
techno gap,
reading writing,
simultaneously literate illiterate,
word processing program,
net supportive technologies,
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