Emerging Technologies Magazine

Digital divide is a term used to signify the difference between different sections of people, or countries, in their ability to use modern digital technologies such as the computer, mobile phone and the Internet. Poor countries are more concerned with basics such as food and healthcare and they are not able to attend to “luxuries” like IT literacy. Even in developed countries, certain sections of the population are digitally illiterate and this leads to a digital divide between different sections.

What are the problems of digital divide? The major problem is that the digitally illiterate people are denied access to knowledge and information that are available to the digitally proficient. Lack of access to knowledge and information leads to missed opportunities for education and earning. The result will be an aggravation of existing wealth disparities.

The world’s, and individual countries’, economic development depends in a major way on the distribution of wealth. If people don’t have purchasing power, there will be no buyers for most of the goods and services produced; production of goods and services will not expand and the economy will stagnate. Purchasing power is created by distributing the wealth of the country as widely as possible.

There is also the issue that high inequality of wealth can lead to civil unrest and wastage of human resources. The world cannot hope to achieve stability so long as large sections of it are underdeveloped.

The issue is complicated by the fact that earth’s existing resources cannot support a living standard that is similar to the living standards in developed nations for all the world’s people.

Digital divide thus have implications beyond just an inability to use computers and the mobile phone. Projects such as Evoke are seeking to spread digital literacy in African countries that are seriously affected by the divide.