Digital divide

Digital Society

SE Current Topics of Information Systems, Especially the Digital Society

Dr. Alexander Novotny

Edition 1

Specific concepts of the digital society

Overview

» Introduction: Social beliefs about ICT innovation » Introduction: Social media and power » Digital Divide » Factors influencing the use of digital technology

Social beliefs about ICT innovation

An introductory example

Let‘s travel to the silicon valley together

» Watch the video „Welcome to Silicon Valley“ by Ympact - Global Startups, Entrepreneurs, and Changemakers

» https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4OjGf0t2sQ

In-class discussion: Let‘s travel to the silicon valley together

What do you think about the following quotes taken from the video?

» „Put your foot on the pedal, go as fast as you can go!“

» „The energy that exists here is intoxicating.“

» „You don‘t have to be a 50 year-old professional to start a company, you can be a 20 year-old dreamer.“

Social media and power

Another introductory example

Donald Trump's tweet activity from his first tweet in May 2009 up to now.

Digital communication between individuals suffers from perturbance

» Some examples:

» Disinformation caused by cybersecurity threats Botnets Manipulation of artificial intelligence Troll factories Fake online groups, fake emails Evasion and poisioning of AI engines with fake input data

» Self-reinforcing system by filter / personalization algorithms (echo chambers + filter bubbles: “only see what you like“)

Facebook‘s content moderation center in Berlin

Digital divide

What is the digital divide?

» “Uneven distribution in the

» access to, » use of, or » impact of

» information and communications technologies (ICT) » between any number of distinct groups, which can be defined based on

» social, » geographical criteria, » or otherwise.” (NTIA 1995)

» Often also called “digital inequality”

Levels for analysing digital inequality

» level of analysis » Individuals » Organizations » Societies, countries, regions

» attributes » income, education, geography, age, gender, size, profitability, sector, etc.

» technology layer in digital solution stacks » access vs. usage vs. impact » phone, Internet, computer, digital TV, etc.

Social media use of different demographic groups in the U.S.

Physical access to the Internet

Geographical divide: Internet users as a percentage of population

Source: ITU (2015)

Gini coefficient

» Statistical dispersion measure of income/wealth inequality » Based on the Lorenz curve

» Development of the Gini coefficient can be observed over time

„Young“ and „old“ social media

Timeline of major demographic cohorts

Cmglee / CC BY-SA https://commons.wikimedia.org/ wiki/File:Generation_timeline.svg

Digital natives and digital immigrants

» Digital native: person born and grown up after digital technology has emerged » interacting with digital technology from early childhood on

» Digital immigrant: person born and grown up before digital technology has emerged » First contact with digital technology in adult age

» Some common misconceptions about digital natives and digital immigrants » Digital natives have greater computer efficacy than digital immigrants. Digital immigrants can be computer

experts and digital natives not be able to set up an Internet connection. » To be a digital native is “better” than being a digital immigrant.

e.g., Loss of attention through digital technology » Digital natives have “inherited” digital media competence, e.g., how to distinguish fake news, etc.

Social factors influencing the use of digital technology

» Culture » Traditions » Religion » Economics » Education » Politics

Cultural influences

» Culture consists of human values, norms, beliefs and knowledge shared by group or society

» Socialization: process of internalizing the norms of a society

» Culture on different levels » Global regions » Countries » States and local regions » Organizations » Groups

» The GLOBE model of societal clusters

Bozkurt, et al. (2018)

Traditions

» Pass on cultural patterns from one generation to the next

» Basically: oral tradition or by observation

» Custom, stories, beliefs, etc.

» Social interaction (greeting, “Thank you” …)

» “Loss of traditions”: e.g., regional Tyrolean traditions

» Evolvement of new traditions in digital culture: Netiquette, “privacy week” in October, etc.

Sources

» U.S. Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). (1995). Falling through the net: A survey of the have nots in rural and urban America. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/ntiahome/fallingthru.html , accessed on 01 Sep 2020.

» Hilbert, Martin (2013). Technological information inequality as an incessantly moving target: The redistribution of information and communication capacities between 1986 and 2010. Journal of the Association for Information Science and Technology. 65 (4): 821–835.

» Bozkurt, Aras & Yazıcı, Müjgan & Aydın, Irem. (2018). Cultural Diversity and Its Implications in Online Networked Learning Spaces. 10.4018/978-1-5225-3076-3.ch004.