According to a US Census Bureau 2013 report, nearly 22 percent of New Mexican households do not have a computer in the home.
Having a computer and an Internet connection are important components to bridging the digital divide that separates those who have access to the Internet along with digital resources. However, one expert on the digital divide says that more is needed beyond just hardware to reduce the divide.
Author and sociologist Jan A.G.M. van Dijk during a taped interview with KRWG-TV’s Fronteras- A Changing America says that more than computers and internet access is needed to bridge the digital divide.
“In the last twenty years the main problem was people didn’t have the equipment or technology. Now you see many people have access to this technology, but the problem is that they can’t use it very well,” says van Dijk.
Dr. van Dijk says that research shows that young people may be using the internet at quicker speeds, but it is older people who are using it more efficiently.
“When they (older people) are able to use the buttons, the really technical things, then they might be better on the internet than young people, because the other idea is that young people are very fast at using computers, but they don’t know what they are actually doing, and they don’t know what to search for, because they do not have the knowledge of the affairs of the world,” says Dr. van Dijk.
Dr. van Dijk will give a talk on “Why the Digital Divide is not Getting Better,” at 4 p.m. Today, in the Health and Social Services Auditorium, Room 101A on the NMSU campus.
Dr. van Dijk is a guest on this week’s Fronteras-A Changing America on KRWG-TV tomorrow evening at 7:30 p.m.
