E-Government and Digital Inequality: The Spanish Case Study

Introduction

Since the early stages of the spread of the internet, academics have been concerned about digital exclusion. They initially focused on the first digital divide, that is: “a technology gap between ‘information haves’ and ‘information have-nots’” (Attewell, 2001, p. 252). Research on this topic analysed inequalities in internet access that were detrimental to traditionally disadvantaged social groups (Di Maggio et al, 2001). For many years, factors such as age, socioeconomic status, and race, were powerful predictors for internet access (Van Dijk, 2020). More recently, however, there has been a considerable increase in access to this tool in western countries.

Having observed the decrease in the differences between population segments in terms of access to the internet, academics began to study the second level of the digital divide, working in two new interconnected areas of research (Lutz, 2019). On the one hand, they analysed the differences between web users in terms of internet usage and, on the other hand, they studied the unequal distribution of digital skills.

Early research on internet usage focused on young people. The results have shown that, even though this population segment has a strong online presence, the type of use young people make of the internet varies considerably depending on the offline resources available to them (Hargittai and Hinnant, 2008). In fact, young people with greater educational and socioeconomic resources tend to adopt uses of the internet that allow them to increase their economic, social and cultural capital with greater frequency. In short, such uses provide young users with opportunities for upward mobility that other types of online activities, of a more recreational nature, do not (Lissitsa, 2015). These kinds of internet use are related to: online content creation, news consumption, health and educational information seeking, job hunting, and participation in online political actions. Latterly, the focus of research has begun to broaden, and not only have such differences in use begun to be considered in relation to young people, but also amongst web users of any age. As a result, it has been possible to show how internet users' level of education, socioeconomic status, frequency of use and internet expertise, have a positive effect on the adoption of advantageous internet uses. (Schradie, 2011; Choi and DiNitto, 2013; van Deursen and van Dijk, 2014; Buchi, Just and Latzer, 2015;-DeMarco et al., 2016; Büchi and Vogler, 2017).