Thursday, February 19, 2009

Spotted: Digital Divide in Culture

In the present days of our lives, a so-called “Digital Divide” is now inevitable. Technology has reached a point where century's ago, a man could only imagine such ideas. Today, each country has their own way of using technology and it's role or application to a certain community or population.


When you belong to the silver spooned side of the digital divide, it only means that you have the access to go with what's new or what's relevant today. Advantageous to your side if you live on a country where technology is very much used. The culture of the people today when it comes to technology, empirically speaking, is all about reaching out to other culture and well, yeah... Communicating with people as well. Merging culture and beliefs through various blogs, online communities, messengers, chat rooms and forums. In such forums I've seen on the net, a debate on cultures, traditions or practices is very much talked about. People on the blessed side of technology like having access to computers and the net has an easy way of expressing and sharing their thoughts and culture.


However, being on the less fortunate side of the digital divide means that there is less opportunity to take part in our new information-based economy, in which many more jobs and stuffs will be related to computers. Okay.. So let's set aside culture for a meantime.. It also means that there is less opportunity to take part in the education, training, shopping, entertainment and communications opportunities that are available online. Still, my point is, in general, those who are poor and live in rural or remote areas are about probably 20 times in danger of being left behind than wealthier residents of suburban areas who has easy access to computers.


But who knows, probably in a decade or two, a dramatic change in communication technology might occurred again. Technology is unpredictable anyway.

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