The Information Age Task 3

The Information Age

Stage 3 – The Digital Divide


When it comes to living, ICT has changed many of people the way that they live. There are so many benefits that it has brought to people that there are an enormous amount of benefits that could be said, but I am only going to state a few. It has brought educational, social, and cultural and also economic benefits to people all around the world. In some parts of the world there is almost no impact for all them reasons stated above, for instance Africa is one of the countries that have almost no impact of them, it is stated on the website www.infoplease.com that in July 2005 lest than 1.8 per cent of Africa’s population used the internet compared to North America which was a massive 67 per cent more than Africa. So the millennium declaration, declared that every benefit of new technologies will be available to all especially information and communication technologies must ensure that they are available to all.

Factors that are creating the divide

There are many factors that create the divide. Economic prosperity play a very important role in ensuring that the occurrence of the modern technologies in different societies. A country such as Africa will be more concerned about survival more than ICT. However ICT can help to fight survival, for example when using ICT the community in Africa can order the supplies like medicines and vaccines that fight against disease and infection, so this will be a massive benefit. Countries that have a massive fortune on there hands can obviously afford to dedicate energy and resources needed to put into hand for digital technologies, then having all the customers to purchase all the technology that have been created and produced to the highest quality.
Computers are not cheap, they all have a very high price on them all. A country such as West Africa could cost them a huge amount of money basically up to six years salary. The economic prosperity has a primary result on a number on increasing the divide in a number of factors. When it comes to putting in technological communications in poor countries it is very hard to put in digital technologies that would improve the situation but as they have poor technological communications it would not be feasible. Also people who are at a survival level will then have not the incentive to learn the necessary skills for ICT and therefore will have no benefits for using all of today’s technology. The factors unaccompanied do not determine the extent of the digital divide. A factor that is very large in the up coming of ICT in less developed countries and nations is the condition of the technology infrastructure. If there is no steady and consistent electrical supply running through them countries then it is obviously that these countries and nations will not be supplied with the digital technologies that we have today. Also there are factors such as geographical factors, some countries have huge amount of rain storms and rainforests and these will then cause huge amounts of problems that will bring to the digital technologies




Tackling the divide on the ground

ICT can be extremely cost effective therefore ICT can be capable of being empowering. When it comes to investing in the basic resources of education give way a massive proportion in great returns. If a community ICT centre has been put into the centre point of a village community and village teacher know how to use the technology that has been provide then these massive benefits can be offered to the community in that village that could possibly transform lives. When it comes to transform lives in terms of keeping records with data for farmers and rural workers like keeping track on crops, markets and policies and regulations that could affect them in different ways.


Tackling the divide – political initiatives

When it comes to fining ways to reduce the digital divide there have been several political initiatives. For instance the united nations have now organised two summits as a part of a global plan to hopefully reduce the digital divide so that many people around the world that do not have the technology that some people have to use them and then bring the benefits towards them.


Causes of the divide

There are many cause of the digital divide, the most obviously reason what is causing the divide is that the technology that needs to be installed in some countries are so expensive, also the rental fees will be enormously high as well as the internet connection will be high. People that that are on low income, who are unemployed, elderly and the young would become disadvantaged towards this situation because they will not have the money and funds to provide the equipment and technology. In many rural and distant locations there will be very limited access to the technologies that act in a very fast way, maybe because as there will be very distant countries the connection between the main connection line will not be as strong seeing as the country is very distant. If private organisations were to provide the physical structures that form the foundation for development which in this case the technology that consists of cable or digital telephones then it will support the communities to enable faster and more dependable internet access.
People with lack of skills is another cause of the digital divide, people with low ICT skills will have no chance of using a computer and will not be able to discover the advantages that a computer will bring to them. Even if a person has no clear skills of literacy and numeracy could be a big problem when it comes to using a computer because having lack of literacy skills the person will not be able to use the keyboards and same goes with the keyboard with numeracy because of the number that consist on the keyboard. There are some groups that have not been trained with ICT skills and this makes them very wary about the technology of today and makes them intrigued to learn how to use the new technology. Some elderly people might have experienced skills and a high level of education but it may bring a lack of confidence seeing as new technology has been brought out because they will not be up to date with the technology that has been brought out now to what was brought out in there day and age.
So there are some factors that are causing the divide and there needs to be solutions so that more people all over the world can use the technology that has been brought out in this century.

Conclusion

So in conclusion there are many causes of the digital divide in the UK, there are many projects that are trying to help overcome this big problem around the world with the lack of digital technologies. Private companies and local organisations which world normally fund directly, as well as the government towards the digital technologies for different countries. There is a slight criticism that as everyone is trying to help stop the divide, but the people are not motivated enough in the first place, for instance some country like West Africa will not want to be bothered with all the digital technology because they will want to be more concerned about survival more than anything else. However in addition to the situation more countries are getting more digital technologies so that it can bring massive benefits to there country and as a individual to themselves.