THE DIGITAL

DIVIDE & THE

RAMIFICATIONS

JARRED PATHER
15022628
DIGC110 POE
10/19/2016

WHAT IS THE DIGITAL

DIVIDE?

The Digital divide is a term that refers to the gap between demographics
and regions that have access to modern information and communications
technology, and those that don't or have restricted access. This technology
can include the telephone, television, personal computers and the Internet.
The digital divide normally can be found within cities and rural areas;
between the educated and the uneducated people; between socioeconomic
groups; and worldwide ones, between the more and less industrially
developed nations. The digital divide is noticeable in different ways in those
populations who have some sort of access to technology such as lowerspeed wireless connections, limited access to subscription-based content,
lower-performance computers and lower-priced connections such as dial-up.

SOCIAL CAPITAL

Social capital is the collective value of all social networks (who

people know) and the inclinations that arise from these networks to do
things for each other (norms of reciprocity). The central premise of
social capital is that social networks have value (BetterTogether
initiative, [s.a.]).

The Impact of digital divide on social capital takes place when a

person/people are not able to access or have limited access to any
social network(s), it also takes place when a person/people are
reluctant to change in order to gain access to technology or not being
exposed technology. Therefore the ramifications of this will result in a
person/people not being apart of the global economy. They would lack
information on and battle to compete in the digital world.

Human Capital

Human capital is defined as the skills and/or experience that any

individual/population possess.

In the modern day and age there are different levels of employees
each with a different set of skills, these levels of employment are
divided further by the digital divide. The root of this problem stems from
the fact that manual laborers generally fall under the category of those
who dont have access to technology. Without access to technology
they will probably not be able to improve their knowledge, set of skills
as well as their understanding of something which will lead to no
growth.

KNOWLEDGE CAPITAL

Knowledge capital which is also known as intellectual capital, is a

collection of processes, knowledge, ideas and talents.

Its a collection of knowledge therefore the knowledge capital has to be

passed on/communicated to someone else in order for the knowledge
capital to expand, proving there is a correlation between the digital
divide and knowledge capital. The problem with this is that the digital
divide puts an end to communication with people who do not have easy
access to technology. This technology would normally help them obtain
information easily.

REFERENCES

O'Brien, C. (2012). California's Digital Divide: Closing but still

there. [online] SiliconBeat. Available at:
http://www.siliconbeat.com/2012/08/23/californias-digitaldivide-closing-but-still-there/ [Accessed 19 Oct. 2016].
WhatIs.com. (2016). What is digital divide? - Definition from
WhatIs.com. [online] Available at:
http://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/digital-divide
[Accessed 19 Oct. 2016].