The Digital Divide

Re: The Real Digital Divide. The Economist, March 10, 2005.

The digital divide is real and only getting worst. As stated in the above article, the divide exists because of a lack of income, development and literacy in third-world countries. The United Nation has established programs to bring third world nations up to speed with the information technology boom of industrialized countries but the real problem are the three categories I just mentioned.

Simply put, if people are illiterate and can't read or write, how are they going to operate a cell phone let alone a laptop. The third world nations are not the only place where such divides exist, but right here in the United States exists a divide.

This digital divide, while socioeconomic in many respects, also separates those in rural areas from those in urban. In Idaho, most who live in rural areas have limited access to electronic information sources, specifically broadband. These so-called underserved markets in Idaho and across the country must be brought into the 21st century the same way that rural areas in the 1930s became "connected" to the nationwide telephonic system.