Use of the Internet and the Digital Divide

Internet and Society 2008

James Stewart, University of Edinburgh https://www.wiki.ed.ac.uk/display/IandS/

Outline

 Adoption and Appropriation  Non-use  Design for use  Who uses the Internet?  Statistics  Social Exclusion  Digital Divide

 Policy  Global DD : Development, appropriation

Issues and Ideas

 Diffusion and the s-curve  Studying use and users  Appropriation and domestication  Non-users  Design-use issues.

 Social Exclusion  Digital divide and social exclusion  International exclusion

Diffusion and the S-curve

 Groups of users  Innovators, early

adopters, etc  Demand-side:

Network effects  Supply side:

Economies of scale  S-curve limit  National differences  Gender differences  Generation of techs time

Market penetration

Internet Penetration

Adopter groups

 Many studies suggesting different groups of adopters. E.g.  Enthusiasts - innovators  Pragmatists  Reluctant  Rejectors

 Not a Binary division  What factors underline these types of

categories?

Example of analysis

Adoption and Appropriation

 How and why people adopt  Motivations and resources  Voluntary or obliged adoption

  Why adopt and use innovations? (consumer research)  Functional: they do something practical  Experiental: they provide sensual pleasure  Identity: products provide expression of self identity

 Social and individual context

 Network effects

Appropriation and Domestication

 How technologies come into local settings  Learning

 Formal, informal, learning by doing, community learning

 Social processes  Local experts, local economy, power

 User innovation  Limiting use, giving up use.  Proxy use

Non-use of ICT  Why people don’t adopt

 “Not relevant”,”no use”  “Too complicated”, “too fiddly”

 Practical, experiential, identity factors  Physical / Cognitive barriers  Subjective reactions  No resources  No motivation  No community  Constrained agency

 Resistors, Delayers and Rejectors  Need triggers to use

 These come from other changes in life

Theory and Design

 Excluded by design  Feminist studies of technology design  Design for all

 Keyboard, GUI, metaphors,  Excluded by policy

 Use built from most engaging use  Social uses  Entertainment

Social trends

 Independent women  ICT families  Wealthy young-old  Consumer Society

 Network society  Mega-Cities  Mobility in work - work rationalisation  Migrations

(reduced costs)

The case of the Internet

 Use and non-use  Non-organisational  Sources

 OII report/World Internet report  Ofcom  National Statistics  Scottish Statistics  Pew  Eurescom  MORI etc  Eurostat

Use of internet  USA 76% of adults (Pew May 08) 24%  UK 67% (OxII 2007) 33% non-users

European use (Eurostat 2007).

 Eurostat 2006

Household access (OxII)

Non-ownership of all comms services

Non users adopting less

Intention to get internet at home

Non use (OXII)

Use/Adoption Factors

 Correlates with:  Income  Age and Lifestage  Region  Professional activity  Education  Sex  Ability/Disability  Capital/Wealth  Family with children

Age and Socio-economic Profile of home internet

Income

Education

Involuntary non-use: income and disability

Scottish Household Survey: Car availability

Gender differences in driving skills (Scotland)

Proxy Use

Have some to ask

For those who do have access…

Time Spent online

Where access internet (OxII)

What do we do online?

What do we do online?

Communication

Uses: Entertainment

Ecommerce

Viewing user-created video

Participation

 Posting to the Internet

 OIS 2005

Participation 2

Use of SNS

  “Have you done any of the following things on the Internet in the last year? – Created a profile on a social networking site such as YouTube, MySpace or Facebook?”

  OxII 2007

Multiple media use

Don’t take my TV away!

Don’t take away my Facebook (OxII 2007)

"misuse of email at work' eDesigns 2002

"Top ten email ‘misuse’ by men "

"Top ten email ‘misuse’ by women"

Flirting in the office 2 7 % Planning social life with friends 3 2 % Gossiping about staff 1 8 % Contacting siblings 1 8 % Forwarding pornographic URLs 1 3 % Gossiping about staff 1 5 % Contacting non-work friends 1 6 % Flirting in the office 1 3 % Organising social l i fe 1 1 % Forwarding pornographic URLs 7 % Forwarding jokes to colleagues 5 % Seek new employment 6 % Seek new employment 4 % Forwarding jokes to colleagues 4 % Communicating with overseas relations

3 % Transfer work to web based email addresses

3 %

Contact paren t s 2 % Contact overseas relation s 1 %

Social Exclusion   Unequal but free agents with opportunity.   Dimensions

 No access to work/labour market  Consumer  Identity  Community  Citizenship

  Issues (e.g. Atkinson 1996)  Relative in society  Role of Agency  Dynamics  Individual, family or community

  Excluded groups  Disabled, Ethic minorities, Religious groups,Women, Homeless  Not just ‘the poor’ or ‘working class’

Inclusion and Exclusion via ICTs  Technical Fix for excluded groups

 Work inclusion  Community - end isolation

But  Can’t adopt, won’t adopt  No money, no skills, no interest, no trust  Result-> ‘Digital’ exclusion

 Poor Jobs  Limited Gov services  Limited Information  Few Consumer benefits  Isolation from new culture

 New excluded groups - older men

Labour market exclusion:Women

 Exclusion from best jobs  Creation of ‘the Internet’  Very low participation of women in engineering

and IT professions, especially in ‘West’

 But  High in Far East  Media starts to dominate, and female dominated

professions  Women in the network society question

Problems

 Access  Resources (time, money, experience, social

network)  Local exclusion  Literacy and Skills

 Basic literacy  Information age literacy

 Motivation  Social and individual issues  Life-stage  e.g. identity

Policy

 Social Policy  Unemployment  Social cohesion

 Industrial Policy  skilled workforce  Consumer market

Policy  Provide access  Provide skills (Euro comp driving licence)  Local experts - change agents  User friendly spaces - cybercafes, telecentres,

computers in hairdressers  Free computers+ for whole communities  Liberalisation  Government-industry partnerships  Rely on ‘s-curve’   ‘Thin’ use.  Can remove barriers, but not create motivations

E-inclusion=Social inclusion?

 Claire Buré paper.  Subcultural appropriation  Can act as a bridge  Can reinforce subcultural and excluded

life.

Questions

 Is the digital divide an important factor in social exclusion?

 What policies can help promote adoption  Does technology adoption really lead to

social inclusion?

Global Digital Divide  Development agenda

 Centre - periphery, North-South  ‘Development’ model  Black-holes: ‘silent zones’, 4th world

 Irrelevance of the Internet  To expensive, no electricity, no skills etc  Better things to spend money on:

 Health, water, food, roads,education  Problem of government control and corruption

 But  Enabling technology  Leapfrogging

Global Digital Divide 2

 Donors  Education, telecentres, phone banks

 Liberalisation  Foreign investment

 Infrastructure - Mobile phones  New markets  Industry (outsourcing)

 Indigenous economic development  Relevant Technology

 Mobile phones  Payment systems  Stimulate local innovation

Presentation

 Telecommunications policy in SA  and mobile phones for development

Problems and Benefits  Socio-cultural issues.

 Trust  Local economy and cultural barriers

 Economic divides  Elites  Still too expensive  Need for sustainability

 Donor projects  Benefits

 Bottom up use innovation  Social cohesion in migration  etc

Never Catch up

 Many interlocking issues.  Always new technologies  Increased commercialisation  Are the vanguard opening up the gap?  New Society?:

 Global elites  Entertainment consumers  Subcultures  Excluded

Next Week: Community and Identity

 Reading:   Feenberg, A., Bakardjieva, M (reading pack)  Darin ch 4, Castells ch 5

 Presentations:  Wellman "Neighboring in Netville: How the Internet

Supports Community and Social Capital in a Wired Suburb"

  MMPRPGs/Online worlds  Assignments:

  Diary of whom and how you communicate.  Blog entry on importance of internet and mobile phone

for your social and study life.  Or on your experience of online community