A digital divide is defined as,” The divide between individuals who have ready access to the internet and those who do not.” A study was done that showed how technology effects education and . The results were the following; in Gauteng and Western Cape were the best performing with education. The worst performing schools were in mostly rural areas in Eastern Cape, Limpopo and Kwa-zulu Natal.
3rd World countries cannot compete with the countries who have access to technology. The digital divide is an outcome of class division, low income and bad infrastructure. Africa has twenty percent of the world’s population, yet only four percent of Africa has internet data access.
I believe a cause of the digital divide is apartheid, which promoted the divide and created the digital divide in technology. It will take years to reverse the damage that apartheid has done, and to come to the technology level that first world countries are on.
The digital divide also exists among st gender, physical disability, race and age. This creates its own divide in the technology world.
Technology is becoming more innovative day by day. Making our lives easier. Technology is used to communicate to a broad audience as well as individuals on their own. Technology makes it easy to accumulate information.Technology should be a human right. in every community.
The linden area in Johannesburg is mainly a middle to high class area, the schools in this area mostly have access to computers and technology. We can see how this affects the pass rates in this area, for example Linden Hoërskool ,the areas high school, has a seventy year hundred percent pass rate. Advertising of the schools and businesses are done online, Reaching a wider audience in the community.
The community groups on social media help with communication among st individuals.
The digital divide in Linden has improved over the years. There are however still issues that cause a digital divide in this area, for example Eskom power outages.
Non the less, the digital divide in South Africa has become more narrow. And will continue to become more technologically innovative.
References:
Mhaka, t. (2019). Digital Divide: The Technology Gap between the Rich and Poor — Digital Responsibility. [online] Digital Responsibility. Available at: http://www.digitalresponsibility.org/digital-divide-the-technology-gap-between-rich-and-poor [Accessed 6 Aug. 2019].
Singh, A. (2019). Bridging the digital divide: the role of universities in getting South Africa closer to the global information society. south african journal of information management. Available at: https://www.bridgingthedigital divide/ [Accessed 6 Aug. 2019].
The University of the Witwatersrand, J. (2019). 2018 – Bridging the digital divide with photonics – Wits University. [online] Wits.ac.za. Available at: https://www.wits.ac.za/news/sources/science-news/2018/bridging-the-digital-divide-with-photonics.html [Accessed 6 Aug. 2019].
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