Digital Divide

The digital divide addresses the major gap in today’s society between households, and the single device users. Different socio-economic groups relate to the use of this technology for access to the internet. The demographics show the breakdown by ethnic groups for those  that use and do not use their smart devices. Typically gender, race and income are the determining factors for this digital divide.

An article written by the University of Michigan shows how low income teens use their smart phones for online internet.  This study showed that 27 percent of teens used mobile devices to get on the internet. This number jumps to 41 percent among teens living in households that earn less than $30,000 per year. Addressing the lower income of teens, 70 percent do have computers at home while 92 percent of those families earn more than 30,000 a year. The demographics of social classes seem to determine the internet plans on our phones today.

The focused study totaled nine different groups. It  included all ethnicities and their income. What we learned in class relating back to Net Neutrality mirrors the same data. Income truly predicts the kind of access to the internet we will have. Certain cell phone plans that include internet access are expensive and often slower than a computer internet service. Some would argue whether they should stick to the smart phones or invest in a computer.  Mobile Internet access is higher among white teens who also have a computer at home while 44 percent of African American teens and 35 percent of Hispanic teens using their phones also have a home computer.

Throughout the social classes, there is always a struggle to afford the newest and fastest technology. I know that my classmates and I use my smart phone device for the quick Internet access.  Less affluent people who are willing to pay for Internet access contradict the idea that net access is just a nice leisure but it is rather  viewed as a necessity. To teenagers it is seen to be a necessity to text.  Most would agree that  now it is said to be a necessity to have Internet access .  The main reason  the Internet is now viewed as a necessity is because  the smart phones can do anything on the web without restrictions such as viewing any accounts and accessing  the world wide web. To most social classes this does not apply because of the lack of affordability. Recently, more and more phone companies are making Internet access less expensive for customers and  creating package deals with text and internet access. 

Net Neutrality Opinion

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Online Identity

In class this past week we have discussed numerous things about online accounts, identities and attitudes that can be portrayed online. According to startribune.com there was an interesting article that showed the online world being a place to meet and interact while gaming in another world the game was “ World of Warcraft”. Acting through an avatar being anyone that you can possibly want to be. In class we learned about reflexive identity which is who we think we are. In this case this avatar was a girl who wanted the bigger bust and crazy hair style that she so desired to be portrayed as. She felt herself online as someone that could be social and interactive unlike herself in real life.
Ascribed identity is how someone else thinks of us. In the article it shows the girl’s avatar to be someone that is easy to talk to and someone who was really good at the online game it appealed to a male avatar and made him want to know more about the player. Eventually both of the players became familiar friends online and furthered this online friendship to a real life friendship.
Class discussions we learned that outside forces can affect our sense of self and what others think of us. The online gaming world can give the online identities to allow us to be anyone we want to be, look like, speak like etc. When gaming you can have the physical interactions that you cannot have with someone say on the phone. The online identity of the gaming world is the most online identity you can have, besides something such as a facebook or myspace.
When online gaming you are dealing with virtual identity, how you present yourself online. Gamers find it neat to see what “ideal” body type the player wants to be, it hardly is ever the same as the actual gamer. World of Warcraft is the most popular of the online identity games. Match.com an online account has 2 million users and they too can make their own online identities. Many choose to play and interact with World of Warcraft because of the physical interaction that gamers can show their true feelings in while playing. In the online world you can have any identity you desire, you can be totally anonymous and have no privacy all at once. All it takes is you at the click of a button.