A thought on the Digital Divide

I think we can all agree on the fact that in the society in which we live today, it is easy to regard the Internet as essentially the most powerful advancement of democratic practice of the 21st century. In researching the ‘Information divide’ (or Digital Divide as mentioned in our lecture last week) for another subject, I’ve focussed on the Internet and its implications on the growing divide due to the imbalance of usage. With all the utopian dialogue surrounding the net, I think we all easily forget the repercussions of lack of financial means, locational alienation and implications of social constraints ( to name a few) in terms of Internet usage. Do we ever give a thought about the fact that the internet is providing those who already ‘have’ the capability of more information and knowledge and depriving those who ‘have-not’ of the prospect? I’ve pretty much come to the conclusion, that the imbalances and inequalities that exists (due to the digital divide) are increased by the unequal distribution of the Internet and rather than providing a less concentrated flow of knowledge and encouraging democratic practice, the internet is in fact serving the expansion of the Information divide creating a further divide between society. i know not a thought all will agree on! i also know the democratic benefits far out wiegh the negatives, and we are incresingly oberserving that they are infact endless.....but i thought i'd share this anyway.