The “Digital Divide” refers to the growing gap between the underprivileged members of society, especially the poor, rural, elderly, and handicapped who do not have access to computers, or cell phones, or the internet; compared to the wealthy, middle-class, and young citizens living in urban and suburban areas who have excellent access and computer tools.
The Digital Divide creates the Mathew Effect, and that is, those having access to digital resources benefit more from them, while those lacking resources fall further behind, leading to the continuance and exacerbation of the Digital Divide.
The Digital Divide comes with several layers of challenges. Each of these will be discussed further in our Digital Divide Blog series.