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TopUnderstanding The Digital Divide
The word Digital Divide contains two words, Digital which has come from the technological world and Divide, arising from social sciences. The term digital divide is a well-known phenomenon, and it reflects a gap between poor and richii, urban and rural, educated and uneducated, skilled and unskilled, developed and developing countries and between male and female.
The latest report of We are social and Hootsuite “Digital in2019” shows that globally 57 per cent people (4.388 billion) have internet access which means almost half of the world population has not connected with the digital world, and they are deprived of all the digital services which seem essential for our day to day life in this digital era.
Kularski (2012) expressed that “the digital divide is composed of a skill gap and a gap of physical access to Information Technology (IT) and the two gaps often contribute to each other in circular causation. Without access to technology, it is difficult to develop technical skill, and it is redundant to have access to technology without first having the skill to utilise it”. This is a significant point as without having the required competence, the mere availability of information technology would not be of much support.
Though a variety of advanced solutions for bridging the digital divide have been offered by the governments and a high share of the population (Giebel, 2013) yet the gap is still wide and visible in multiple ways. The digital gender divide remains one of the dominant factor.