Socioeconomic Levels Of Technology: The Digital Divide

Technology has become humanity's new and consistent form of communication. However, along with technology, comes a well known phrase: The Digital Divide. The Digital Divide refers to the economic and social inequality with regard to access to, use of or impact of information and communication technologies. The divide appears in disparities between individuals, households, businesses or geographic areas, usually in various socioeconomic levels or other demographic categories. The Digital Divide is an ongoing issue in America and throughout the world. It shows technical diversities ranging from access to the internet and media to how technology is understood due to literacy and sometimes the age of an individual. Underdeveloped countries and elderly people are more prone to having less access to the most recent technologies because of economic status and overall understanding of how technology works. Even though it seems as if the digital divide is closing due to recent technologies, there are still some barriers that need to be addressed to get the divide a little smaller. The Digital Divide consists of the difference between people who have an economic status where they can afford

Broadband has a data transmission rate that ranges from 1 to 500 Megabits per second (Mbps). (Evans, 2015)

"As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the 111 Congress allocated $7.2 billion dollars in broadband funding for administration by two federal agencies. The larger share, $4.7 billion, was to be distributed by the Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration to establish and operate the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program (BTOP) (ARRA, 2009, Title II, Title VI, Sec. 6000)." (Weiner,