News Item Response

The article i decided to write was Internet Skills and The Digital Divide, i found this article to pertain to me significantly after seeing my Technology Diary. The article had to do with "internet skills often focus on specific aspects of internet use, we have applied a definition of internet skills that is derived from multiple research directions and subsequently arranged in a particular order."(Deursen). When i saw how much technology is involved with my every day life, i found this article interesting in that contrast. I believe our society has become completely evolved with the digital era, especially seen with the amount of use in Face book and twitter. I would have never of thought about the people that aren't able to gain access to the Internet due to the overwhelming amount of people on Face book. I myself don't have a Face book account, however i view this as a good thing for me. I would not consider myself in the digital divide of the population. "The term ‘digital divide’ initially referred to gaps in access to a computer. When the Internet diffused rapidly into society and became a primary type of computing, the term shifted to encompass gaps in not only computer but also Internet access. Early research on the digital divide focused mainly on a binary classification of physical access."(Deursen). It's hard to even think there is a digital divide since everyone i personally know has access to cell phone, which can be used to access the Internet and its amenities to social media sites. It is interesting to see how some people don't have the internet skills as kids in college do, for example my parents are very behind with internet use. I feel as if i have to teach them everything there is to do about the internet and how it works, i would consider them part of the digital divide. I found the digital divide most prevalent when dealing with our parents and older generations, since they did not grow up on these technologies. I believe that we will see in the coming a huge increase in the amount of digital devices for everyday use. With technology advancing as much as it is, who is to even guess what the next latest and greatest device will be. The Iphones from Apple have shown the dramatic increase in technology since 2000, the first Iphone had one camera and a very basic voice command software compared to the new Iphone 4s that has two cameras front and back as well as the most advanced voice command software to date.

van Deursen, A., , & van Dijk, J. (2011). Internet skills and the digital divide. New Media & Society, 13(6), 893-911. doi:10.1177/1461444810386774