Matters of Opinion: Digital Inequality and Attitudes towards the Internet

• In Event: 197 - Section on Communication and Information Technologies Paper Session. Open Topic on Communication and Information Technologies

Abstract

Traditional digital inequality research mainly focuses on socio-economic factors, such as age, education, and income to determine who is likely to be online and who is not. On the basis of results from a qualitative interview study conducted in Great Britain and Sweden, this paper extends the traditional quantitative digital inequality analyses by adding variables that account for attitudes towards technologies and the Internet in particular. The analysis of representative survey data from both countries shows that attitudes are as influential in predicting who is an Internet user and who is not as socio-economic variables. The results illustrate that considering only digital inequality or choice related factors paints an incomplete picture that could lead to ineffective policies with regards to tackling digital divides in high diffusion countries.

Author

• Bianca Christin Reisdorf, University of Leicester