Puss n’ Boots on Bridging the Digital Divide

 Thought I would lighten things up a bit with asking a good friend of mine to do the talking.  Just in case his accent is too thick, I just want to stress a few points (and I am having trouble uploading the vid!).

“It it clear that advertising will remain the bedrock for financing most search on the web” (Halavais, 2007) ***PLEASE NOTE THIS IS A DRAFT, DRAFT, DRAFT NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION OR CITATION! Thanks! : D

I have a slight problem that every time I do a google search I have to look at LEAST five links down before I come accross a site that is NOT trying to sell me something.  What is even more unsettling is that companies can buy a position on google…thus deciding what information is most important through $$$.  I have a problem with this hierarchy that  classifies information by a position.

This relates directly to the digital divide…the rich are just getting richer and calling all the shots.  While diverse information is now available as the Internet supports a long tail, how can one find this info if they do not know how to perform a search?  It seems elementary web skills, but I worked at a non-profit computer lab and we taught a course on just searching the web properly for “trusted sources.”  Although Wikipedia has become more established, people still take it on face value.  How does anyone find the TRUTH in a sea of websites promoting products or a political doctrine?

We also taught a course to the Silver Services, as you can tell from the name, they were an elderly group of women who wanted to use e-mail to stay in touch with their grand-kids (the “digital natives” as refered to by Halavais).  As the Internet caters to niche audiences, do niche audiences really have access?

Do you think the digital divide exists and to what extent…has it gotten better or worse?  

 

Here is a link to an article I found on Internet inequalities entitled, Social Implications of the Internet.  I did a search through google scholar and as much as I was tempted I didn’t opt for the first article…I even went to the second page!  But I must note this article would have cost me $20 if I wasn’t able to retrieve it from the Quinnipiac Library.  It just interesting to think even when one has access to a computer, there are are still limitations.  In this case financial, which falls in line with the consequences of a digital divide.  This article also covers the how political participation is affected by the digital divide.  A lot of these limitations go hand in hand.  Can individuals search accurate information about the candidates in order to be informed or will they stumble unknowingly onto a site that has a hidden agenda?

One question this article poses is whether or not the internet  has given low income men and women opportunity, or is it perpetuating the rich get richer cycle as mentioned in the Halavais piece?

A little extra experiment…