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Titel / Titel:

Jumping the digital divide: How do "silver surfers" and "digital immigrants" use sociel media?

 

Author / Autor

Fietkiewicz, K. J.

 

Source / Quelle

Networking Knowledge, 2017, 10(1), 5-26

 

Language / SpracheEnglish / Englisch

 

Jumping the digital divide: How do "silver surfers" and "digital immigrants" use sociel media?

The rapid changes in technology and extensive digitalization laid a foundation for broad research on the so-called digital divide, i.e., the individual’s (specific groups or entire societies’) lacking facility or lacking skills to make use of this new advancement. In general, we can distinguish different types of divisions: (a) the global divide between industrialised and developing countries based on the Internet access; (b) the social divide between the “information rich” and “information poor” within a nation; and (c) the democratic divide between people who choose to use digital resources and the ones who do not (Choudrie, Grey & Tsitsianis 2010; Norris 2001). Indeed, the focus lies in the skills and adaptation rather than the physical access. The questions that arise are: ‘In what ways can we make the technology usable and accessible, especially for older people, who are labelled as “Digital Immigrants” (Prensky 2001), with the purpose of bridging the gap between different generations?’ and ‘What happens after the digital divide is actually overcome by some individuals from this generation, who now regularly surf the Web?’

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