6. THE PEW STUDY
18-29 98%
30-49 92%
50-64 83%
65+ 56%
Age %
Online
18-29 98%
30-49 92%
50-64 83%
65+ 56%
Race %
Online
Hispanic
s
76%
Blacks 85%
Whites 86%
Income % Online
<$30,000 76%
>$70,000 96%
7. ACCESS
- How Do We Do It?
- Internet Providers: AT&T
(DSL & Fiber Optics) &
Comcast
- Free Wireless Hotspots
- Public Library
- Mobile Data
- Who Has It?
- Age: Could Range from
84%-92%
- Income: 77%-96%
- Race: 86%
8. RELEVANT TECHNOLOGY
- Most major retailers
- Free wifi
- E- Commerce
-Emory Eastside
Hospital
-Medically relevant
technologies
9. HUMAN CAPACITY
- Age is most significant factor
- Elderly residents are not online as much
11. REFERENCES
Broadband Adoption: U.S. County Map. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2015,
from http://www.governing.com/gov-data/broadband-adoption-rates-data-for-
counties-map.html
Kizza, J. M. (2015). Social Context of Computing. In Ethical and social issues in
the information age (5th ed., pp. 123-156). Place of publication not identified:
Springer.
Marks, J. (2013, August 8). Tackling the Greatest Digital Divide. Retrieved from
http://www.nextgov.com/emerging-tech/2013/08/tackling-greatest-digital-
divide/68363/
Snellville, Georgia (GA 30039, 30078) profile. (n.d.). Retrieved September 19,
2015, from http://www.city-data.com/city/Snellville-Georgia.html
Editor's Notes
This presentation will describe the digital divide and look into the specifics of this in my community of Snellville GA.
The digital divide is defined as the gap between those who have access to computers and the internet and those who do not. While this gap has decreased significantly in recent years, it still is large and effects many school children. 15% of Americans do not have access to the internet at home and the gap is significantly larger in rural areas.
This is a screenshot from the interactive map on governing.com. This map shows the levels of internet connectivity throughout the state of Georgia as of December 2013. Snellville is part of Gwinnett County. This map illustrates that Gwinnett county has between 401 and 600 connections per 1000 households. This is significantly higher than those in middle and southern Georgia. The middle and southern areas of the state are significantly more rural that those in and around the metro Atlanta area.
In 2013, Snellville had a population that comprised mostly of women (54%). This is likely due to the 8 (soon to be 9) major shopping plazas along the main 2 miles of one of two major highways. The median age is 43 years old and the median household income in that same year was $56,391. From this data we can tell that Snellville is a small middle class town with older residents.
In 2010, Caucasians were the majority at 57.2% followed by African Americans at 29.3%, and Hispanics at 7.4%.
In 2013, the Pew Internet and American Life Project completed a study to look deeper into the digital divide in the U.S. They concluded that 98% of young adults aged 18-29 are online, followed by 30-49 year olds at 92%, 50-64 year olds at 83%, and 65 year olds and older at 56%. When studying the data from the perspective of race, they found that 78% of Hispanics, 85% of African Americans, and 86% of Caucasians are online. When looking from an income perspective they found that housholds that made less than $30,000 showed a 76% rate while households making more than $70,000 showed a 96% rate of being online.
In Snellville, There are two internet providers to choose from: AT&T (offering U-Verse and DSL) and Comcast. Because Snellville is so full of retail and restaurants, there are more than 20 free wireless hotspots around town that can be utilized for laptops and mobile devices. In addition, there is a branch of the Gwinnett County Public Library that offers computers with free internet access. In a world where many people are getting rid of their computers and getting tablets and smartphones instead, the mobile data network is increasingly being used as an alternative to internet services at home. I could not locate the specific digital divide data for my community but if we apply the Pew statistics to the demographics of my community, we can assume that the % of Snellville residents online lies somewhere between 85% - 92%.
Snellville is an urban area and as such doesn't have any significant company headquarters but there are still many significant businesses that are on the cutting edge and helping to fight the digital divide. There are many stores in Snellville such as Target, Starbucks, and of course McDonalds that provide free wifi access to customers. There are also stores for most cellular carriers including AT&T and Verizon who not only provide free wifi but push customers to purchase smart phones and tablets to further close the digital divide.
The PEW study determined that age ranges have the most disparity in Internet use. People aged 65 or older are in the group with the lowest percentage of Internet users. When human capacity is discussed with reference to the digital divide, it applies to the capacity of people to learn and utilize the technology available.
