Digital Divide is an Economic Divide

While discussing the “digital divide” in class last week, one image kept popping into my mind. When I was younger, I loved maps. But my favorite map was a night image Mercator projection of the earth. It was fascinating to see where civilization “lights up.” Interestingly enough, a large swath of lights along the Sahel region (Sub-Saharan Africa) of Africa were described as out of control forest fires. While I had thought, maybe these people had begun to benefit from the international aid sent to them, able to prosper and succeed; it turned out to be nothing more than a horrific natural disaster. The map puts into perspective several of the points made by the Taiwanese researchers who published our reading for the week. The United States has a disproportionate hold on wealth and technology relative to its population. The map shows the United States brighter than any other section of the globe, fueled by a prosperous economy. Yet, much more densely populated areas of the globe sometimes barely show up at all. This reality extends to the unequal distribution of Internet access. The digital divide occurs along these “light divides,” representing political and economic stability.

A friend of mine visited South Korea as a Marine several years ago. I remember him telling the story of visiting the De-Militarized Zone between the two warring nations. He had enjoyed the bright lights and vibrant activity of Seoul, the capital of South Korea. Yet, just a few miles away at the border, he was able to look across into North Korea. He found nothing but desolation and darkness. It stunned him to see the disparity in the distribution of wealth and opportunity. And it all came down to this one specific line that divided the countries. The fact is that the digital divide is a result of political realities. Nations with certain kinds of governments will more likely prosper economically. As a result, as our authors noted, the more economically developed nations have greater Internet penetration. So as we see more and more people gaining access to the Internet, it is still occurring largely behind this economically-based dividing wall. I believe that the solving the digital divide involves addressing political difficulties more than finding the money to donate laptops to underprivileged children. It is important to have benevolent peoples donating their time and money to send the technology to these far corners of the globe. But with corrupt political forces at work on both sides, I think there are more fundamental issues that need to be addressed first.