Digital Divides From Access to Activities: Comparing Mobile and Personal Computer Internet Users

By Katy E. Pearce, Ronald E. Rice. 2013

314 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Digital inequality can take many forms. Four forms studied here are access to Internet, use of different devices, extent of usage, and engagement in different Internet activities. However, it is not clear whether sociodemographic factors, or devices, are more influential in usage and activities. Results from an unfamiliar context show that there are significant sociodemographic influences on access, device, usage, and activities, and differences in activities by device type and usage. While sociodemographic differences are more influential, device type can increase likelihood of use for some “capital enhancing” activities, but only for a computer. Thus, although mobile Internet is available for those on the wrong side of the digital divide, these users do not engage in many activities, decreasing potential benefits.

Subfields: Communication, Gender Studies, Media Technology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/a65608dc72cfa7af1a2fefbf2e9aa04b615dc769

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Communication

1. A. V. van Deursen
2. J. V. van Dijk
3. Jesse Fox
4. Thomas N. Friemel
5. Bree McEwan
6. Ellen J. Helsper

In Gender Studies

1. J. V. van Dijk
2. A. V. van Deursen
3. Jesse Fox
4. Thomas N. Friemel

In Media Technology

1. A. V. van Deursen
2. J. V. van Dijk
3. Thomas N. Friemel
4. Ellen J. Helsper

Citations in the corpus

• Distinguishing technologies for social interaction: The perceived social affordances of communication channels scale (2017, background): “Accessibility is fundamental to phenomena such as the diffusion of innovations (Rogers, 1962) or the digital divide (Pearce & Rice, 2013).”
• The first-level digital divide shifts from inequalities in physical access to inequalities in material access (2018, background): “Smartphones and tablets are used relatively often for leisure purposes (gaming and social networking) and personal safety, and desktop and laptop computers are more task-or work-based (Murphy et al., 2016; Pearce and Rice, 2013; Zillien and Hargittai, 2009).”
• The digital divide has grown old: Determinants of a digital divide among seniors (2016, background): “Foremost, this includes the differentiation of adoption, access and more specific usage patterns and skills (Pearce and Rice, 2013).”