Digital Divide.

What is the digital divide? The digital divide in many minds is accessibility and people who don't have hardware or software to experience technology. However Warschauer sees it less as "have" or "have not" and more of a problem of social inclusion. As we have seen, giving someone a computer doesn't bridge the gap if they are a poverty stricken country. They still have no idea how to use it. You need to realize the context of the situation and what technological level the people we are providing the hardware/software too are at. This term of "digital divide" sometimes can be considered problematic because of these two meanings--accessibilty or social inclusion.

I think the social inclusion problem needs to be addressed, but the problem is how to address it. There are so many layers that are part of this problem, and all need to be considered. In Warschauer's article, we learn that many times people in poverty are given technology that is not in their language, given no training on how to operate the computer, are using a dial up connection, not even given proper software or hardware, etc. In the New Dehli, India incident they were given 5 computers set up in kiosks but only given a joystick to operate them with. The computer was all in English, which they don't speak. Essentially all they could do with the computer was mess around with Word and Paint or change the background wallpaper of the screen. This is riduculous in my opinion. If they have a computer, they need to be given proper hardware, such as a keyboard, to use it. They need to be able to use it to their full potential. A training session should be given, languages should be changed, etc.

In an article I found by Jide Awe published in Digital Divide Network, he says that "digital concepts are important because the ICT driven world is our reality. If we want to operate at our best in today’s knowledge economy we must exploit the digital environment." This is true. Further in the article, he talks about potention training sessions in Ajuja and Nigeria that could potentially be done. This is a huge step in the right direction as far as closing the digital divide and social EXCLUSION to make it social inclusion.

The technology exists--so why shouldn't everyone be able to benefit from it? This is the direction the entire world is going in and the countries being left out are going to fail if they don't start learning and using the technology we have.

Now relating this to my theme which is interpersonal relationships. If the people in the poor areas of the world were given the opportunity to use technology to it's full potential they could use email, MMOG's, and social networking sites to communicate with other people around the world. They would have the same benefits that all of us have through these technologies. Their interpersonal relationships would grow and be easily maintained through things like this. A potential down side that I do see, however, is that since this is such a contrast to how they were living before, I'm sure the older people living in the same communities as them would be very against it and feel that they are neglecting the people that are around them physically. In Warshcauer's article he also talks about how mothers of children who started playing on the kiosk computers in New Dehli were starting to slack on their school work and it worried them how much time they were wasting on the computers. At that time they were doing such limited activities...if they were using computers to their full potential it is sure to scare the mothers and fathers.