For most of us online users, the Web has become an integral part of our daily lives. We spend a big chunk of our time carrying different tasks with the help of some digital tools. However, we often assume that everyone else has fairly the same level of access to online platform. In reality, social differences largely determines a person’s interaction with the Web. For one instance, people who live in rural areas tend to have less access to the internet.
Digital inequality exists across demographic groups based on factors like household income and level of education. However, those who are already regular Web users still carry digital differences in terms of their technical skills, understanding of internet, and the way they derive value from the Web.
(Source : Medium, 2017)
Knowing that offline context has such a profound effect on shaping one’s online practice caused me to wonder, how does this theory apply to myself? While analysing the various social factors that contributed to my personal digital differences, I found that education plays an extensive role. There is a striking difference between my way of using internet during high school versus in the university, where my interaction with the Web has substantially evolved in terms of using it for academic research.
(Source : Pew Internet & American Life Project, 2013)
Another significant aspect is the age demographic. As a 20 years old, I belong in the age group which currently has the biggest presence in social medias. Like others my age, I often spend time online switching between platforms like Instagram and Facebook, whose majority of users are Millennials.
(Source : The Infographics Show, 2012)
The personal experiences mentioned above show that my current offline factors including age, culture, along with other aspects like motivation and location, become my digital differences that have a strong influence and even drive the approach that I take when interacting with the Web.
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Reference :
Halford, S., Huw, D., Dixon, J. (2017) Digital Differences, Inequalities and Online Practices University of Southampton MOOC. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/3/steps/263012 (Accessed : 10 November 2017)
Halford, S., Huw, D., Dixon, J. (2017) How Digital Differences Impact on Our Learning. University of Southampton MOOC. https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/learning-network-age/3/steps/263013 (Accessed : 10 November 2017)
Zickuhr, K., Smith, A. (2012) Digital Differences. http://www.pewinternet.org/2012/04/13/digital-differences/ (Accessed : 10 November 2017)
Living and Working on the Web 
Hi Evelyn,I strongly agree with you that in the network age, the web and technologies plays an integral part in our live. The technologies are used in different aspects such as education, economic, politic etc.It is true that everyone have different level of skill, technique or references to use digital technologies. For example, The oder people who is 50 year ole above significant less use the internet compare as young people like us. Same as you, the way i using the internet are differently compare as the past. Now i using the internet to access and searching for the information collectively and selectively , which are really useful for my education. I believed that beside the demographic factors there are also some policy restriction to access the internet in some country in the world.
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Hi Thanh! Thank you for reading my post and commenting on it. It is good to know that we have the same experience in terms of our growing digital skills that are particularly crucial for learning purposes.
It is really interesting because when you brought up the topic of internet access policy around the world, the first country that came into my mind was China.
As far as I know, they have one of the strictest internet censorships in the world and they even block widely used digital platforms like Youtube and Facebook.
They also restrict their citizens from talking online about sensitive political topics and exercise close monitoring of people’s internet activities. This in my opinion has an adverse effect on their digital skills and can even enhance digital inequality in the world.
Do you have other example of countries that comes into your mind when we talk about internet access restriction policy?
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Thanks Evelyn for the sharing about the restriction to access the internet or social media .There are also some other countries that don’t have abilities or restrict in policy to engage the internet, for example :North Korea all website are use under government control, about 4% population has interent access. For another example , In Cuba internet available only at government controlled “access points” activities online is through IP blocking, key work ,browsing or the history are checked by the government. Only pro-government users allow to upload or post the content (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/02/05/top-ten-internet-censors/5222385/)
Because of some restriction to access the internet policy that make digital differences on interact with the web and and the internet
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