Closing the Digital Divide: General Trends and Driving Factors Behind Internet Usage in Latin America

Internet literacy is crucial to become information literate and for lifelong learning for today's citizens. However, there is an identified gendered digital divide in Internet usage, as the major proportion of unconnected citizens, especially in the developing economies in asian countries are women. The problems of the gender digital divide are not just limited to connectivity and infrastructural issues, literacy and the cost of access, which are often discussed in the literature. The authors identify some of the second order factors that are often overlooked and arise out of cognitive, psychological and social factors leading to the digital divide. The paper also discusses possible measures that could be taken up to address the second order gender digital divide.

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Ability, motivation, opportunity and sociodemographic determinants of Internet usage in Malaysia

Information Development ◽

10.1177/0266666918804859 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 35 (5) ◽

pp. 819-830 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Adedapo Oluwaseyi Ojo ◽

Chris Niyi Arasanmi ◽

Murali Raman ◽

Christine Nya-Ling Tan

Keyword(s):

Digital Divide ◽

Digital Technology ◽

Extrinsic Motivation ◽

Social Cognitive ◽

Cognitive Theory ◽

Internet Usage ◽

Path Modeling ◽

Modeling Analysis ◽

The Social ◽

Sociodemographic Determinants

Further to the binary notion of accessibility and lack of accessibility to digital technology, this study examines Internet usage as the outcome of choice made by an individual to use the Internet. In identifying the determinants of choice, this study integrates the social cognitive theory notion of the human agency with the ability-motivation-opportunity (AMO) framework. The results of path modeling analysis of the data collected from 270 respondents in Malaysia showed that digital skill was the most significant predictor of Internet usage. Opportunity and extrinsic motivation were also significant predictors, whereas intrinsic motivation had no significant effect on Internet usage. Besides, the findings revealed that the traditional sociodemographic determinants of the digital divide are still prevalent in Malaysia.

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Another flew over the digital divide: internet usage in the Arab-Palestinian sector in Israel during municipal election campaigns, 2008

Israel Affairs ◽

10.1080/13537121.2013.748292 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 19 (1) ◽

pp. 154-169 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Azi Lev-On

Keyword(s):

Digital Divide ◽

Internet Usage ◽

Election Campaigns ◽

Municipal Election

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Attitudes and the Digital Divide: Attitude Measurement as Instrument to Predict Internet Usage

Informing Science The International Journal of an Emerging Transdiscipline ◽

10.28945/427 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

pp. 037-056 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Elisabeth Donat ◽

Roman Brandtweiner ◽

Johann Kerschbaum

Keyword(s):

Digital Divide ◽

Internet Usage ◽

Attitude Measurement

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Ethical Implications of the Digital Divide and Social Exclusion

International Journal of Innovation in the Digital Economy ◽

10.4018/ijide.2018010102 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

pp. 14-25 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Essien D. Essien

Keyword(s):

Digital Divide ◽

Rural Areas ◽

Social Inequalities ◽

Internet Access ◽

Internet Usage ◽

Significant Implication ◽

Ethical Implications ◽

Computer Ownership ◽

Education Levels ◽

The Subject

Despite that global internet usage continues to expand given the increase in the number of computer ownership and Internet access, a divide persists between information rich and information poor, which is people with lower incomes, education levels, skill and capacity, minorities, as well as those living in rural areas. Building on numerous researches on the digital divide, this study argues for a different set of metaphors by which digital divide should be understood, valued and managed. It examines the understanding that the digital divide is inevitably tied to the concept of social inequalities in every society. With an insight provided for understanding the independent and different layers of the digital divide, a criterion on appropriate approach toward tackling the problem of digital divide is thus supplied. Findings have significant implication for cumulative research on the subject of digital divide in Africa.

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The empowerment of singleton daughters: exploring the gender digital divide among Chinese college students

Information Technology and People ◽

10.1108/itp-07-2019-0350 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽

Author(s):

Puxin Zhang ◽

Lian Wang ◽

Chun Liu

Keyword(s):

College Students ◽

Digital Divide ◽

Parental Support ◽

Female Students ◽

Internet Usage ◽

Male Students ◽

Content Type ◽

One Child Policy ◽

Child Policy ◽

The Impact

PurposeExisting researches find that a gender difference exists in terms of Internet usage. In China, the singleton daughters resulting from China's one-child policy enjoy unprecedented parental support. The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether singleton daughters can, to some extent, break through the predicament of the digital divide.Design/methodology/approachThe study collected data from a sample of 865 college students and obtained 811 valid questionnaires. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is used to identify clusters of Internet usage from the perspective of statistical associations in various daily online activities. Two-way ANOVA and mean-comparison tests are used to analyze how singleton and non-singleton students use the Internet differently.FindingsThis study finds that singleton female students showed no significant differences from male students in aspirational activities of informational, educational use and social media use, which means that singleton female students have caught up with male students in these activities. However, female college students from multi-child families were still found to be disadvantaged in those activities.Originality/valueThere is a lack of consensus on the classification of Internet activities. We used EFA to cluster the varieties of Internet activities into three types: utilitarian use, exploratory use and aspirational use. The three identified types of Internet usage require different degrees of user initiative. We argue that initiative provides a useful lens through which to classify Internet usage. In addition, this study is among the few studies to investigate the impact of the one-child policy on the gender digital divide.

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