Digital divide in the United States

Main articles: Digital divide and Global digital divide

The digital divide in the United States refers to inequalities between individuals, households, and other groups of different demographic and socioeconomic levels in access to information and communication technologies ("ICTs") and in the knowledge and skills needed to effectively use the information gained from connecting.[1][2][3][4]

In 1995, The National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) conducted the first survey to assess Internet usage among different demographic groups (what the study deemed the "haves" and the "have-nots" of American society).[2] After U.S. President Bill Clinton adopted the phrase "the digital divide" in his 2000 State of the Union address, researchers began to track trends in ICT access and usage across these different groups.[5] NTIA defined the digital divide as "one of America's leading economic and civil rights issues" in their 1999 report "Falling Through the Net: Defining the Digital Divide" (1999).[6]

The effort by the United States' government to close the digital divide has included private and public sector participation, and has developed policies to address information infrastructure and digital literacy that promotes a digital society in the United States.[7]

According to Census data, 18% of households used the internet in 1997 and this usage increased to 62% in 2007 and 73% in 2015.[8] Digital access has risen steadily over the past decade, increasing by 11 percent since 2009, though the digital divide exists between varying demographics based on region, age, race, disability, etc.[9]

  1. ^ Norris, P. 2001. Digital divide: Civic engagement, information poverty and the Internet world- wide. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Univ. Press.
  2. ^ a b "FALLING THROUGH THE NET: A Survey of the "Have Nots" in Rural and Urban America". doc.gov.
  3. ^ "Patricia, J.P. 2003. 'E-government, E-Asean Task force, UNDP-APDIP'(PDF)" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2012-03-08. Retrieved 2011-12-09.
  4. ^ Mossberger, K., C.J. Tolbert, and M. Stansbury. 2003. Virtual inequality: Beyond the digital divide. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
  5. ^ Nie, Norman H (2001). "Sociability, Interpersonal Relations, and the Internet: Reconciling Conflicting Findings". American Behavioral Scientist. 45 (3): 420–435. doi:10.1177/00027640121957277. S2CID 144011627.
  6. ^ National Telecommunications & Information Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. (1999). Falling through the net: Defining the digital divide. Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.ntia.doc.gov/report/1999/falling-through-net-defining-digital-divide
  7. ^ Choemprayong, Songphan (2006). "Closing Digital Divides: The United States' Policies". Libri. 56 (4): 201–212. doi:10.1515/libr.2006.201. S2CID 17784485.
  8. ^ U.S. Census Bureau. “Computer and Internet Use in the United States: 2015 American Community Survey.” U.S. Census Bureau, Sep 2017, https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/acs/acs-37.pdf.
  9. ^ "NTIA Data Reveal Shifts in Technology Use, Persistent Digital Divide | National Telecommunications and Information Administration". www.ntia.doc.gov. Retrieved 2021-05-14.