Origins, Growth, and Geographies of the Global Internet - Global Geographies of the Internet - page 18

Fig. 2.6 Map of growth in internet users, 2000-2011. Source internetworldstats.com

2.3 Digital Divides

Clearly internet usage is highly uneven among and within countries. The digital
divide, or social and spatial differentials in internet access, has been the subject of
a growing body of literature (Norris 2001 ; Korupp and Szydlik 2005 ; Warf 2001 ),
revealing how digital communications are enfolded in relations of wealth and
power in ways that reproduce inequalities in cyberspace. Howard et al. ( 2010 ,
p. 111) point out, ''The causes and consequences of the digital divide have become
a contested area of research. Understanding the digital divide is crucial to
understanding the role of the Internet in contemporary social development.''
Fundamentally this question is about who has access and can use the internet and
who does not. ''Access'' and ''use'' are admittedly vague terms, and embrace a
range of meanings, including the ability to log-on at home, school, cybercafé, or
work (DiMaggio et al. 2001 ). Rather than a simple access/non-access dichotomy,
it is more useful to think of a gradation of levels of access, although data of this
subtlety rarely exist. Thus, it is increasingly common to speak of ''digital differ-
entiation'' rather than a divide (Selwyn 2002 , 2004 ).
The digital divide is a complex, changing, and multi-dimensional phenomenon
that reflects the diverse channels through which social inequalities are reinscribed
in cyberspace. Everywhere, class markers such as income and education are
strongly correlated with internet access and use. Everywhere, age plays a key role:
the elderly are inevitably the least likely to adopt the internet. In many places,
gender is important too: in North America the gendered divide has disappeared,
but in Europe it persists, and in the developing world it is pronounced. The digital
divide is also a geographical phenomenon. Everywhere, large urban centers tend to
exhibit higher rates of connectivity than do rural areas (Mills and Whitacre 2003 ;
Warf 2001 ).
As the uses and applications of the internet have multiplied, the costs sustained
by those denied access rise accordingly. At precisely the historical moment that
contemporary

capitalism has come to rely upon digital technologies to an