The economic factor

The digital divide is a symptom of deeper, more profound and important divides: income, development and literacy. Fewer people in poor countries than in rich ones, own computers and have access to the Internet simply because they are too poor or do not have access to electricity. Owning a computer would not help someone with more pressing concerns, such as finding food and providing for the needs of their family.

In March 2005 the United Nations launched the ‘Digital Solidarity Fund” to finance projects that will address “the uneven distribution and use of new information and communication technologies” and “enable excluded people and countries to enter the new era of the information society”. But this raises a searching question. Will plugging poor countries into the Internet enable them to ‘get rich quick’?

I personally think that is highly unlikely. A computer is not particularly useful if someone cannot read and has no electricity. The UN would like the money to start local infrastructure projects like ‘rural tele-centres’, where people can come along and have access to PC’s and the Internet. But in my honest opinion, I feel that this is going about addressing the disparity between peoples in relation to digital technologies the wrong way. I found an article from Economist.com very interesting. It stated the following:

“Rather than trying to close the divide for the sake of it, the more sensible goal is to determine how best to use technology to promote bottom-up development.”

In other words, instead of just giving developing countries access to PCs and the Internet, it is more worthwhile trying to find out how to use technologies to benefit the people in their current predicament. The same article then went on to say that the promotion of mobile phones rather than computers is the answer and I agree with them to a certain extent. Plenty of evidence suggests that the mobile phone is the technology with the greatest impact on development.

Another article from Economist.com reports on some research that states that an extra ten phones per 100 people in a typical developing country increases Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth by 0.6 percentage points. People do not need to be able to read or write to use mobile phones and so the advantages are much more obvious.

In the UK, changes in mobile phone technology and digital and satellite media have forced people into updating their devices. In certain elements of society, trends are also determining what brand, type or model  is considered as acceptable. For example, peer pressure in teenage circles to have the best and newest phone has put more strain on parents’ budgets. Many people simply cannot afford these new technologies and so the gap is widened even further.

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