GRAPHIC: America's digital divide, in 2 maps

The gap between rich and poor in the United States is increasingly noticeable by technology. Broadband connection is the entrance to work, education, consumer goods, information etc. However, it remains unconnected in wide areas of the United States, especially rural areas. In some areas you can not simply use the Internet connection. Others have a nifty service, students can join the online course, or adults working at home can join the video conference

The following two maps illustrate these two problems. The above map shows the percentage of rural residents in the county that can use broadband connections meeting the Federal Communications Commission's standard of 25 Mbits per second. The map below shows the connection speed of Americans nationwide.

Both show a problem that patchwork broadband access still exists in the United States and there is a connection area next to the disconnected area. Overall, more than 30% of the rural areas in the US do not yet have broadband access that the FCC considers appropriate. This is in stark contrast to urban areas where this connection has been established only in 1% of cities.

More importantly, the Federal Communications Commission acknowledged that the map underestimates the digital divide between urban and rural areas. If only one family in the census district receives service, the FCC thinks that the entire census department is "served". There is also controversy about what should be counted as coverage; some providers receiving federal subsidies to spread broadband to rural areas need only reach 10 Mbps, even if it costs millions of dollars to bring broadband to them Also, this service does not meet the speed standard of the committee himself.

Digital divide, a term expressing the uneven distribution of information and communication technology (ICT) in society. In the digital divide, the difference between computer and the Internet (1) access (global divide) (primary digital divide) and use (secondary digital divide) between developed countries and developing countries, and (2) single and diverse socioeconomic Group collective state (social disparity), and (3) political participation of different types of users on the Internet (democratic disparity). To summarize, these differences can lead to widespread social inequality, a continuous information or knowledge gap to people ("rich people") accessing and using new media ("no"), It is considered to cause.

The digital divide is economic and social inequality in the access, use, or influence of information and communication technology (ICT). Differences within the United States (such as the digital divide of the United States) may mean inequality among individuals, families, companies, or geographical areas, usually at different socio-economic levels or other demographic categories . The gap between different countries and regions in the world is called the global digital divide, which examines the technical gap between developing and developed countries on an international scale.

The global digital divide is a special case of the digital divide, focusing on the fact that the Internet is developing heterogeneously around the world. 681 caused countries delaying in technology, education, labor, democracy and tourism. The concept of digital divide was initially popular due to the difference in Internet access between rural and urban areas in the United States, but the global digital divide internationally reflects this difference.

Howard Besser extended the definition of the digital divide by insisting that the digital divide is not just a technical access between the rich and the rich. The digital divide includes information literacy, content suitability, and access to content. In addition to access, there are digital gaps among people who have the ability to apply critical thinking to technology. Because most online content is written in English, fluency in languages ​​and English is also an obstacle to the digital divide. Digital gaps include gaps between individuals with the ability to create digital content, or simply between consumers.